



























































RETAIL SHOESALESMENS INSTITUTE 

Conducting 

W course 

HtetaiL $hoeSalesmen 

FOUNDERS 




GEORGE W BAKER SHOE CO.. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

BLISS ii BERRY CO., 

Newburytort, Mass. 

BOOT 8t SHOE RECORDER. 

Boston, Mass. 

BRISTOL PATENT LEATHER CO.. 

Boston, Mass. 

BROCKTON RAND CO.. 

Brockton, Mass 
BROWN SHOE CO.. 

Sr. Louis, Mo. 

ARTHUR L EVANS. 

Boston. Mass 
L B. EVANS' SON CO.. 

Wakefield, Mass. 
FARNSWORTH, HOYT CO,. 

Boston, Mass. 

HAZEN B. (ioODRICH & CO., 
Haverhill, Mass 
HAZEN-BROWN CO . 

Boston. Mass 

HUNT-RAN KIN LEATHER CO. 

Boston. Mass. „ 

GEORGE X. KEITH CO.. 

BtfocKTON, Mass. 

KEYSTONE LEATHER CO., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

MENIHAN CO, 

Rochester, N. Y. 

MORSE & BURT CO., 

Brooklyn, N Y 
A. E. NETTLETON CO., 

Syracuse, N. Y 
PETERS MFG. CO., 

Boston, Mass. 

THOMAS G. PLANT CO., 

Boston, Mass. 

RICE & HUTCHINS. INC., 

Boston, Mass. 

SEAMANS & COBB CO.. 

Boston. Mass. 

SELBY SHOE CQ., 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 

STETSON SHOPS. INC., 

South Weymouth, Mass 
THE SHOE RETAILER, 

Boston, Mass. . „ 

UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO , 
Boston, Mass. 

UNITED STATES RUBBER CO., 
New York, NY. 

WIZARD FOOT APPLIANCE CQ., 
St. Louis. Mo. 

E T. WRIGHT & CO., 

Rockland. Mass. 


NATIONAL sftoE RETAILERS' 
ASSOCIATION, 

CHISHOLM SHOE CO.. 

Cleveland, Ohio 
COHEN BROTHERS, 

Jacksonville, Fla. 

W ILLIAM FILENE'S SONS CO., 
Boston, Mass 
CILCHR1ST CO. 

Boston, Mass. 

W C. GOODWIN, 

Fitchburc, Mass. 

GUARANTEE SHOE CO.. 

San Antonio, Texas. 

F A. GU1NIVAN, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
HIRSCH-ULLMAN SHOE CO., 

El Paso, Texas „ 

A V. HOLBROOK BOOTERY CO., 
Columbus. Ohio 
A. H. HOWE & SONS. 

Boston, Mass. _ 

JONES. PETERSON & NEWHALL CO.. 
Boston, Mass. 

JOHN A. MEADORS & SONS. 

Nashville, Tenn. 

THOMAS F. PEIRCE & SON. 

Providence, R. I. 

W. G. SIMMONS CORP., 

Hartford, Conn. _ 

STELLING-NICKERSON SHOE CO. 

Augusta, Ga. 

W. W. WILLSON, 

Boston, Mass. 






































































EDITORIAL COUNCIL 


ARTHUR L. EVANS, Editor in Chief * 
GEORGE F. HAMILTON, Managing Editor 

CONSULTANTS 


C. Q. ADAMS. General Manager. 

Bristol Patent Leather Co. 

ARTHUR D. ANDERSON. Editor, 
Boot and Shoe Recorder 
C. L. ANDERSON, President , 

Bristol Patent Leather Co. 

T. F. ANDERSON, Secretary, 

’ New England Shoe & Leather Ass’n. 
GEORGE W. BAKER, President, 
George W. Baker Shoe Co. 

GEORGE W. BAKER, J*.,. Sec'y and 
Treas., 

George W. Baker Shoe Co. 

JOHN A. BARBOUR, Prlsiden,, 
Brockton Rand Co. 

PERLEY E. BARBOUR, Vice-President, 
Brockton Rand Co. 

CHARLES A. BLISS, Treasurer, 

Bliss & Perry Co, 

ELMER J. BLISS, President, 

Regal Shoe Co. 

FRANK J. BRADLEY, President 
Hazen B. Goodrich & Co. 

FRANK R. BRIGGS, Treasurer, 
Thomas G. Plant Co. 

E. P. BROWN, President, 

United Shoe Machinery Co. 

MAX BROWN, President, 

Hazen-Brown Co. 

JOHN A. BUSH, 'President,, 

Brown Shoe Co. 

CHARLES T. CAHILL. 

United Shoe Machinery Co. 

C. K. CHISHOLM, Firm Member. 
Chisholm Shoe Co. 

F. S. COBB, President, 

Seamans & Cobb Co. 

HENRY W. COOK, Vice-President, 

A. E. Nettleton. Co. 

H. T. CONNER. Vice-President, 

George E. Keith Stores Co. 

LOUIS A. COOLIDGE, Treasurer. 
United Shoe Machinery Co. 

E. D. COX, 

United Shoe Machinery Co. 

F. F. CUTLER, President, 

The Cutler Publications. 

A. W. DONOVAN, President, 

E. T. Wright & Co. 

W. F. ENRIGHT. 

United States Rubber Co. 

ARTHUR LUCIUS EVANS, Treasurer, 
L. B. Evans’ Son Co. 

PF.RC1VAL B. EVANS, Vice-President. 
L. B. Evans' Son Co. 

A. II. GEUTING, Dealer ani Ex-President , 
National Shoe Retailers’ Association 
W. C. GOODWIN, 

Ocslcr 

JOHN S. GRIFFITHS, Pres,dent. 

L. B. Evans’ Son Co. 

FRANK A. GUINIVAN, 

Orthopedic and Merchandising Specialist 
A. C. HEALD, Treasurer. 

Stetson Shoe Co. 

CHARLES A. HIRSCH, 

Hirsch-UUman Shoe Co. 

A. V, HOLBROOK, President, 

' A. V. Holbrook Bootery Co. 

IRVING B.. HOWE, Partner, 

' A. H. Howe &; Sons, 

CHARLES? C. HOYT, President, 
Farnsworth, Hoyt Co. 

HERBERT V. HUNT, President. 
Hunt-Rankin Leather Co. 


GEORGE E. KEITH, President, 

George E. Keith Co. 

HAROLD C. KEITH, Treasurer, 

George E. Keith Co. 

Jj F. KNOWLES, Treasurer, 

W. G. Simmons Corn. 

0EORGE H. LEACH, Secretary, 

George E. Keith Co. 

A H. LOCKWOOD, Editor, 

‘ Shoe & Leather Reporter 

Frank R. MAXWELL, Vice-President, 
Thomas G. Plant Co. 

0EORGE H. MAYO. Manager, 

• Footwear Division, 

United States Rubber Co. 

ALLEN H. MEADORS, Partner, 

John A. Meadors & Sons. 

I G. MENIHAN, President, 

Mehihan Co. 

T. C. MIRKIL, Secretary-Commissioner, 
National Shoe Retailers’ Association 

RAYMOND P. MORSE, Treasurer, 
Morse & Burt Co. 

JAMES A. M UNROE, Vice-President, 

, E. T. Wright & Co. 

GEORGE A. NEWHALL, Vice-President, 
Jones, Peterson & Newhall Co. 

GEORGE E. PEIRCE, Firm member, 
Thomas F. Peirce & Son 

WALTER I. PERRY, President, 

Bliss & Perry Co. 

PAUL. A. PETERS, Vice-President, 
Peters Mfg. Co. 

WILLIAM F. PETERS, President, 
Peters Mfg. Co. 

BURT W. RANKIN, Treasurer, 
Hunt-Rankin Leather Co. 

J. B. REINHART, Vice-President, 
Wizard Foot Appliance Co. 

CHARLES A. REYNOLDS, President. 
Keystone Leather Co. 

FRED B. RICE, Vice-President, 

Rice & Hutchins. Inc. 

HOLLIS B. SCATES, Shoe Division 
Manager. 

William Filene’s Sons Co. 

MARK W. SELBY, Vice-President and 
Secretary, 

Selby Shoe Co. 

F. W. SMALL, Manager Shoe Dept., 
Gilchrist Co. 

S. G. SPITZER, Manager Shoe Dept., 

S. Kann Sons Co. 

FRED W. STANTON, Secretary, 
National Shoe Travelers’ Association 

FRANK H. STELLING, 
Stelling-Nickerson Shoe Co. 

E. H. STETSON, President, 

Stetson Shoe Co. 

JAMES H. STONE, Editor, 

The Shoe Retailer. 

E. B. TERHUNE, Treasurer and General 
Manager, 

Boot and Shoe Recorder. 

GEORGE A. VOLK, Firm member, 

Volk Bros. Co. 

J. M. WATSON, President, 

Guarantee Shoe Co. 

R. R. WILKINSON, Shoe Buyer, 
Cohen Brothers. 

W. W- WILLSON, Store Soles Manager., 
Rice & Hutchins, Inc. 

E. T. WRIGHT, Treasurer 
E. T. Wright & Co. 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


BY 

THE STAFF EDITORS 

RETAIL SHOE SALESMEN’S INSTITUTE 

H 


IN COLLABORATION WITH 

Cecil Q. Adams, General Manager, Bristol Patent Leather Co. 
C. L. Anderson, President, Bristol Patent Leather Co. 

P. E. Barbour, Vice-President , Brockton Rand Co. 

Max Brown, President, Hazen-Brown Co. 

Charles T. Cahill, of the United Shoe Machinery Co. 

F. S. Cobb, President, Seamans IA Cobb Co. 

Charles C. Hoyt, President, Farnsworth, Hoyt Co. 

Herbert V. Hunt, President, Hunt-Rankin Leather Co. 

Albert H. Lockwood, Editor of the Shoe and Leather Reporter 
Paul A. Peters, Vice-President and Treasurer, Peters Mfg. Co. 
William F. Peters, President, Peters Mfg. Co. 

Burt W. Rankin, Treasurer, Hunt-Rankin Leather Co. 

Charles A. Reynolds, President, Keystone Leather Co. 


VOLUME 3 

CONSTITUTING PART OF THE TRAINING COURSE 
FOR RETAIL SHOE SALESMEN 


RETAIL SHOE SALESMEN’S INSTITUTE 
BOSTON 



COPYRIGHT, 1920 , BY 
RETAIL SHOE SALESMEN’S INSTITUTE 


All rights reserved 
Made in U.S.A. 



©C1.A565423 

APR - I 1920 

/»‘c * 



PREFACE 


The purpose of this volume is to present 
facts of interest and importance concerning 
the materials used in the manufacture of 
shoes. The object has been to offer the re¬ 
tail shoe salesman information relating to shoe 
materials in their raw state, the sources of sup¬ 
ply, the processes of manufacture employed to 
make them serviceable for their use in shoemak¬ 
ing, and the characteristics in appearance and 
wearing service of different kinds and qualities 
of materials as they are found in the finished 
shoe. 

All this has for its object to broaden and 
deepen the salesman’s knowledge of the goods he 
is selling and thus to increase the value of his ser¬ 
vice to his customer and finally to himself. The 
facts are based upon first-hand information from 
specialists, although no attempt has been made 
to present a technical treatise as a source of in¬ 
formation for the expert in any branch of the 
wholesale trade. 

Acknowledgment is made to the following 
experts who have generously contributed of their 
knowledge on subjects in their own special fields: 


vi 


PREFACE 


Charles Blair; J. C. Coffin; L. H. Gilson; E. W. 
Hurd; F. R. LeGallee; J. J. McPhillips; John 
Marshall; Edward O’Connor; C. U. Pifer; A. J. 
Ryan; F. H. Safford; F. W. A. Shultz; Fred H. 
Thompson; F. Harold Tolman; J. F. Wogan; 
F. W. Whitcher. 


THE EDITORS 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 

Demand and Supply of Hides and Leather.1-2 5 

Salesman’s Need to Know Leather; What 
Leather Is; Earlier Uses of Leather; Shoe 
Leather Requires Special Kinds of Skins; 
Hides, Kips and Skins Classified, Distinguish¬ 
ing Different Kinds of Leather; Cattle Hides; 
Extent of Demand for Cattle Hides; Packer 
and Country Hides; Hides for Sole and Upper 
Leather Distinguished; Calf; Kips; Goat; 
Sheep; Cabretta; Horse and Colt; Kangaroo; 
Deer; Buying and Selling of Hides and Skins; 
Importation of Skins; High Cost and Scarcity 
of Hides and Skins; Influence of War Upon 
Hide and Skin Supply; Price Movements. 

CHAPTER II 

Tanning of Leather.26-48 

Softening, Cleaning and Unhairing; Bating 
or Puering; Importance of Beam House; The 
Tanning Process; Bark Tanning Materials; 
Chrome Tanning Process; Re-Tanned Leather; 

Sole Leather Tanning; The Bark Process De¬ 
scribed; Oak Sole Leather; Tannage of Upper 
Leather; Dressing of Upper Leather; Snuffing; 
Dyeing; Combining the Drum Dye and the 
Flat-Surface Processes; Kinds of Dyes, 
vii 




viii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER III 

Types of Finished Upper Leather.49-67 

Side Upper Leather; Calf Skin; Boarded 
Calf; Smooth Finished Calf; Suede Finish Calf; 
Glazed Calf; Patent Leather; The Patent 
Leather Process; Care of Patent Leather; 
Popular Usage. 


CHAPTER IV 

Types of Finished Upper Leather ( Continued ) 68-84 
Kid Leather; Varieties of Kid Leather; Sheep 
Skins; Coltskin — Horsehide — Cordovan; 
Chamois and Kangaroo; Fancy Leather; Care 
of Leather; Study of Leather. 

CHAPTER V 

Preparing Fabrics for Use .85-101 

Getting at the Main Facts; Importance of 
Fabrics in Shoemaking; Classes of Cotton 
Fibres; Testing and Grading; The Manufac¬ 
turing Process; Weaving; Dyeing Process; 
Selection of Dye-Stuffs; Bleaching; Testing 
Fabrics. 


CHAPTER VI 

Fabrics in the Shoe .102-133 

Interior Fabrics; Lining an Important Part 
of the Shoe; Purpose of Lining; Construction 
of the Fabric; Strength of the Lining Fabric; 
Plumping Cloth; Interlining; Top Facing; 
Inside Stay; Bindings; Pull Straps; Backed 
Cloths; Methods of Backing; Care of the 





CONTENTS 


ix 


Fabric; Topping Cloths; Corkscrew and Plain 
Weaves; Cotton Sewing Threads; Service an 
Important Feature; Preparing the Yarn; Mak¬ 
ing the Thread; Summary of Manufacture; 
Merits of Cotton Thread; Linen Once the Fore¬ 
most Textile; Present Sources of Supply; Com¬ 
parison of Linen and Cotton; Linen Sewing 
Thread; Wool; Quality the Product of Cen¬ 
turies; Woolens and Worsteds; All-Wool 
Cloth; Union Cloth; Merits of Cloth for 
Shoemaking Purposes; Preparing the Fabric; 
Silk; Romance of Silk Culture; The Silk Fibre; 
Silk Sewing Thread; Silk Shoe Fabrics. 

CHAPTER VII 


Rubber and Fibre.134-147 

Alternatives for Leather; Rubber; First Efforts 
to Make Rubber Footwear; The Raw State; 
Drying and Curing; Cleaning; Preparing for 
Commercial Use; Rubber Heels; Making the 
Heel; Means to Prevent Slipping; Fibre Soles; 

How the Sole is Made; Testing; Fibre Coun¬ 
ters; Hemp Fibre; Hemp Counters. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Other Raw Materials and Their Uses. 148-165 

Wood; The Shank; Wooden Heels; Wooden 
Soles; Pegs and Peg Wood; Cutting and Finish¬ 
ing the Wood; Use in Special Kinds of Work; 

Iron and Steel; The Shank; Manufacture of 
Shoe Nails; Variety of Uses; Paper; Shanks; 
Innersoles, Lifts, etc.; Cork; Insole and Filler; 
Artificial Leather; Essentially a Vegetable 
Product; Use in the Shoe; Combinations of 




X 


CONTENTS 


Raw Materials; Innersoles; Use of Composi¬ 
tions; Points of Advantage; Box Toes — 
Mainly Felt or Canvas; Cement; What it Is; 
Channel Cement; Sole-Laying Cement; Stitch- 
ing-Room Cement; Leather Cement. 

CHAPTER IX 

Shoe Manufacturers’ Findings. 166- 

Shoe Buttons; The Making Process; Eyelets; 
Visible Eyelets — Fast Color; Enamel Eyelets; 
Japanned Eyelets; Invisible Eyelets; Lacing 
Hooks; Brass and Steel Hooks; Japanned 
Hooks; Shoe Dressings or Cleaning Agents; 
Need of the Dressing; Extent of Re-Finishing; 
Dressing for Different Kinds of Leather; Re- 
Dyeing; Waxes; Water Blemish on the Sole of 
the Shoe; False Impression Concerning Shoe 
Dressing; Bows; How Bows are Made; Quali¬ 
ties of Bows; Buckles; Requirements of a Good 
Buckle; Shoe Laces; Classes of Laces; Differ¬ 
ent Grades of Laces for Manufacturer and Re¬ 
tailer; Braiding the Lace; Polished and Mer¬ 
cerized Yarns; Cutting and Tipping; Qualities 
Desired in a Good Lace; Styles; Silk and Imi¬ 
tation Silk; Cartons and Labels; Importance 
of Attractive Containers; Distinctive Appear¬ 
ance of the Stock. 



MATERIALS IN SHOES 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


CHAPTER I 

DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF HIDES 
AND LEATHER 

SALESMAN’S NEED TO KNOW LEATHER 

The man (or woman) who sells shoes at retail 
needs first of all practical information that will 
enable him to advise customers regarding the 
different varieties and qualities of leather used 
in shoes. For unless he is well informed on the 
subject he is often likely to lose a sale because 
of his evident ignorance of leather. On the 
other hand, if he has a good knowledge of the 
various kinds of leather, their wearing qualities, 
preparation and proper use for different kinds 
of shoes and different parts of the same shoe, 
he has a great advantage over the salesman 
without such knowledge. After all, leather is 
the foundation of shoes and the quality and 
serviceability of the leather does more to deter¬ 
mine the satisfaction of the customer than any 
other single factor. 

WHAT LEATHER] IS 

Leather has held its place for ages as a thing 
apart and as a material that cannot be imitated 
with entirely satisfactory results. The reason 
for this is found in the natural formation of the 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


skins and hides of which leather is made. These 
are made up of fibres that are so related, either 
by interlacing or by their arrangement side by 
side, as to defy imitation by any man-made 
product. A close examination of the finished 
article shows these fibres and clearly explains 
the peculiar toughness, flexibility and wear- 
resistance so characteristic of leather. Illustra¬ 
tions are given to show the arrangement of 
fibres in different kinds of skins. 

EARLIER USES OF LEATHER 

For our purposes we are interested in know¬ 
ing principally about leather as it is today and 
of its importance in the shoe trade. On the 
other hand, it is well to know something of how 
the present stage of development was brought 
about and of those who contributed to it all 
along the line. 

The ancient Egyptian knew about the treat¬ 
ment of skins to make them serviceable for his 
use and to prevent their decay. An evidence 
of this fact is clearly shown, and may be seen 
today, from engravings on the stones of Egyp¬ 
tian tombs. These show, in a series of crude 
pictures, the various operations in the tanning 
process, as the ancient knew it. 

Specimens of leather have been discovered in 
China, along with other antiques; and it has 
been proved that these are more than 3,000 years 
old. Coming down to more modern times, 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 3 

comparatively speaking, the accounts of earliest 
explorations to America tell us definitely that 
the Indians were found to be using quite gener¬ 
ally as part of their wearing apparel, if it may 
be so called, the skins of animals that had been 
treated with oil, clay or other substances as a 
means of preserving. In view of all this it is 
clear that leather at least, as a useful product, 
is not an “up-start.” 

SHOE LEATHER REQUIRES SPECIAL KINDS OF 
SKINS 

The hides and skins of all animals, even in¬ 
cluding birds, reptiles and fishes, may be tanned 
into leather, but comparatively few kinds of 
skins are suitable for shoes. Likewise there are 
various kinds of plants containing tannic acid 
which will after a fashion change hides and 
skins into leather; but for practical purposes 
only a few of these sources of tannic acid can be 
used in making shoe leather. 

Even considering the limited number of kinds 
of hides and tanning materials and the great 
care used in making each piece of leather so as 
to satisfy the requirements of certain parts of 
a shoe, it is impossible to make two pieces of 
leather exactly uniform. Leather is not a manu¬ 
factured product in the sense that textiles are. 
Textiles are produced by combining the indi¬ 
vidual fibres which make up the fabric; leather, 
however, is grown on the backs of the animals. 


4 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


The only job of the tanner is to preserve the 
hide or the skin from decomposition and to 
give it the desired solidity and hardness or flexi¬ 
bility and softness, according to the need for 
special purposes. It is for the tanner also to 
produce the desired color and finish. No two 
sides of sole leather or skins of calf or kid are 
alike and no tanner could make a good piece of 
leather out of a skin if it were below standard. 
Hides differ just as the faces and forms of hu¬ 
man beings differ. For this reason, in spite of 
the utmost vigilance on the part of the tanner 
or manufacturer, shoes of the same make and 
price cannot be entirely uniform in the quality 
and substance of the upper and sole leather. 
But tanners and shoe-makers do grade the skins 
very carefully so as to get the leather as uni¬ 
form as possible in shoes of each grade. 

HIDES, KIPS AND SKINS CLASSIFIED 

In general the term hide is used to represent 
the pelt of a full-grown animal. To come un¬ 
der this classification the pelt should weigh 25 
pounds or more. Kips are the pelts of small or 
undersized animals of the cattle class. These 
usually weigh from 15 to 25 pounds. Originally 
the word came from the name of small native 
cattle of India, the pelts of which were used in 
England to a very considerable extent for shoe 
leather. The term skin is used in the leather 
trade to designate the pelt of smaller animals, 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 5 



ILLUSTRATION TO SHOW RELATIVE PROPORTIONS 
OF THE SKIN, KIP AND HIDE 




6 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


such as the calf, sheep, goat and the like. These 
pelts generally weigh under 15 pounds. 

In addition to the usual types of hides, kips 
and skins, which we shall describe, there are 
many others which are not suitable for shoes. 
The skins of birds, reptiles and fish are often 
used for fancy leather goods. As a result of 
the abnormal consumption of leather during the 
recent war period attempts have frequently been 
made to use the skins of sharks and larger fishes. 
It now seems doubtful if they will serve the 
purpose as they are too rough and hard for upper 
stock and the uneven skin surface prevents their 
use for sole leather. The skins of the whale, 
walrus and porpoise are quite elastic and if made 
into shoes would stretch almost indefinitely. For 
similar reasons, hog skins must be eliminated 
from the list of leathers. They are not only 
stretchy but also porous. It is possible, how¬ 
ever, to use some of these and some other skins 
for innersoles. In other words, then, certain 
skins are suitable for shoes and others are not; 
depending upon the texture of the skin. For 
instance, in sheep skin the fibres are long and 
often weak so that the skin is unsuitable for any 
purpose where durability is essential. 

The list below gives a fair idea of the va¬ 
riety of demands made upon leather for different 
purposes. Shoemaking ranks among the first 
of these requirements but the available supply 
must be apportioned among all these demands. 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 7 


PRINCIPAL USES OF LEATHER 


Automobile Upholstery 


Glove Leather 
Harness Leather 
Pocket Book Leather 
Shoe Leather (Upper) 
Shoe Leather (Sole) 

Shoe Leather (Findings) 
Sporting Goods Leather 
Strap Leather 
Valve Leather 
Whip Leather 


Leather 

Bag and Case Leather 
Belting Leather 
Bookbinders’ Leather 
Buffing Leather 
Carriage Upholstery 


Leather 

Clothing Leather 
Furniture Leather 


DISTINGUISHING DIFFERENT KINDS OF LEATHER 

The hides and skins of various animals can 
be studied readily in their raw state but it is 
not so easy to judge them after they have been 
tanned into leather. In fact, it is frequently 
difficult to tell one leather from another after 
it has been made into shoes, and sometimes ex¬ 
pert leather buyers have difficulty to distinguish 
the leather. For the purpose of showing clearly 
the difference in the texture of skins of various 
animals, illustrations are given which represent 
enlarged sections of the skin as seen under the 
microscope. It is important to examine these 
carefully in order that the leather as used in 
the different kinds of shoes may be recognized. 

In the raw state tanners technically distin¬ 
guish hides according to the size, thickness, firm¬ 
ness and coarseness of the skin and by studying 
under a microscope the arrangement and size of 
the hair cells which appear on the grain side. 


8 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


(The grain side of the hide is that side on which 
the hair of the animal has grown.) The ques¬ 
tion of sex is also a determining factor. In the 
bull hide there is a considerable item of waste in 
the fore part, at the animal’s neck. Heavy wrin¬ 
kles are conspicuous in this section of the hide 



and these make it undesirable for the best usage. 
In the cow hide the neck makes a better grade of 
leather due to the absence of wrinkles. How¬ 
ever, there are other portions of the hide, espe¬ 
cially at the belly, that produce inferior leather. 
This is generally soft and stretchy and therefore 
not good for the best shoe making purposes. 
Hides from diseased animals are, of course, much 
inferior to those from healthy animals. 

The skins of the heifer (young cow) and the 
steer (young ox) are finer in texture than those 
of the more mature animal. Also there are 
fewer of the soft and wrinkled portions that 
cause wastage in the larger hides. It is interest¬ 
ing to note that the variations in the quality 
of the leather in different parts of the hides are 












DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 9 

so numerous that as many as twenty to thirty 
different grades of sole leather are often cut 
from one hide. 

CATTLE HIDES 

Cattle hides are divided into three classes — 
steers, cows and bulls. Domestic hides are 
green salted. This means that as soon as they 
are taken from the animal they are salted or put 
into brine to prevent decay until they are 
tanned. Imported hides come into this country 
either green salted or dried. Those from 
Buenos Aires, which is a very important South 
American point of export for hides, come to the 
markets of the United States both in the dry 
and green salted condition. Those from South 
American packers are green salted, the same as 
those from the local packers. Other hides that 
are gathered in smaller quantities from outlying 
sections of South America are received here 
dried; having been stretched on boards and 
dried in the sun before shipment. Some of the 
hides from the River Plata and from Australia 
come partly dried and salted on the flesh side. 
Others, particularly from Brazil and the West 
Indies, come in fully dried and salted. Cattle 
hides from the great beef packing houses in 
South America are known as Frigerificoes (re¬ 
frigerator) and are the South American equiva¬ 
lent for the hides from the American packing 
houses. 


10 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


EXTENT OF DEMAND FOR CATTLE HIDES 

Although in the latter part of 1919 there were 
about 70,000,000 head of cattle in the United 
States, according to the best estimate, the annual 
slaughter does not yield anything like enough 
cattle hides. During the year 1915, before the 
imports were seriously restricted because of the 
European war, the receipt of cattle hides from 
foreign countries amounted to nearly 9,000,000 
pieces weighing more than 300,000,000 pounds 
and costing over $61,000,000. 

Steer and cow hides are used for automobile, 
furniture and belting leathers as well as for both 
upper and sole stock in shoes. Bull hides sel¬ 
dom go into anything except sole leather. Cow 
hides, if not marred on the surface by brand 
marks and the like, can be tanned and split. 
(The process of splitting is one of dividing by 
cutting through the thickness of the hide, thus 
producing two or more pieces of reduced thick¬ 
ness out of the original hide.) When this is 
done the splits from the grain side are used for 
upper leather while the splits from the flesh 
side may be used for a variety of purposes. For 
instance, they make very good, flexible innersoles 
and fairly good upper stock, when blackened and 
finished in imitation of calf skin. Of course, 
this leather is inferior and is only used in lower 
grade shoes. 

Reference to the illustration of the splitting 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER n 



SPLITTING PROCESS 









12 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


process will show how splits are cut. The lower 
roll is made with a rough surface so as to hold 
down the lower split and also to feed the hide 
to the knife. The rolls are adjustable to dif¬ 
ferent thicknesses of leather. The knife also is 
adjustable to give splits of varying thicknesses. 


PACKER AND COUNTRY HIDES 

Domestic hides are classified as packer and 
country hides. Packer hides, as their name indi¬ 
cates, come from the beef packing establish¬ 
ments, such as those of Chicago, Kansas City, 
St. Louis and other packing centers. Country 
hides are those gathered from the small country 
butchers and the farmers. Packer hides are 
much superior to the country hides because of 
the more expert manner in which the packers are 
able to remove the hide from the animal. There 
is less spoilage due to cuts and scores. Also 
there is a great amount of care exercised in selec¬ 
tion and curing. Packer hides are dropped into 
the cellars directly from the slaughter house and 
are selected, sorted and graded at once. Tan¬ 
ners are enabled to buy from the big packers 
carload lots of any given selection and can be 
reasonably sure of getting uniform hides in the 
best possible condition. On the other hand, 
country hides are collected in small, scattering 
lots and frequently have begun to putrefy before 
they are properly salted. As a result packer 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 13 

hides command a very much higher price than 
country hides. 

HIDES FOR SOLE AND UPPER LEATHER DIS¬ 
TINGUISHED 

In a previous section it has been noted that 
cattle hides are used mainly for sole leather. 
It is well to remember here that the require¬ 
ments of leather for soles are quite different from 
those for the uppers. Sole leather must be very 
firm and dense, while upper leather must be 
flexible and of finer texture. Accordingly the 
hide industry and likewise the leather, as far 
as the use of skins for shoes is concerned, is 
sharply divided between hides for soles and 
leather that is intended for shoe uppers. In 
large shoe factories it is quite customary to 
have two leather buyers, one of whom gives his 
time to the purchase of sole leather and the 
other to upper leather. 

Among the hides, those from the bull and 
steer are commonly used for sole leather while 
cow hides are used partly for sole leather and 
partly for upper leather. The smaller hides or 
kips, as they are called, are generally used for 
upper stock. 

CALF 

The most common, and in many respects the 
most suitable skin for making upper leather, 
is the calf skin. There is as much difference 


14 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

between calf skin and cow hide as there is 
between veal and beef. Calf skin is smaller, 
softer and finer and the grain is more even. 

KIPS 

Kips are really a class or variety of calf skin. 
They are taken off the larger calves that have 
become old enough to graze. However, such 
a skin is not so large as to require that it be cut 
into two sides, as is done in the case of the cow 
hide. Because of its greater size and weight the 
hide is separated into two parts by cutting it 
down the line of the back-bone, thus making it 
more convenient to handle in the tanning pro¬ 
cess. The kip has certain qualities of both hides 
and skins, being firmer than a skin but not so 
firm as a hide. 

GOAT 

The goat is the meat and dairy animal over 
a great part of the earth’s surface. In Europe, 
Asia and Africa and parts of South America, 
herds of goats are so large and numerous that 
almost incredible numbers are slaughtered an¬ 
nually without danger of cutting off the future 
supply. The number of goats in America is 
very small. Goat skin is much more firm than 
sheep skin as the fibres in the former are inter¬ 
laced instead of running parallel, as they do in 
the sheep skin. For this reason it will stand the 
strain in any direction. Therefore, leather 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 










i6 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


made from goat skin, which is commonly called 
kid, makes an excellent upper leather. There 
are many varieties of goat skin, due to 
the various conditions in the different parts of 
the countries from which the animals come. 

SHEEP 

As will be inferred from the preceding para¬ 
graph, the sheep skin, because of the parallel 
arrangement of its fibres, is not as suitable for 
the making of leather as the goat skin or many 
other types of skins. The leather made from it, 
however, is suitable for facings, tongues and 
similar uses where the strain of pulling and twist¬ 
ing is not so great. Large quantities of sheep 
skins are tanned into leather for gloves and other 
purposes in which less strength or wearing qual¬ 
ity is necessary. 

CABRETTA 

The cabretta is a cross between a sheep and 
a goat and therefore the skin is somewhat better 
than sheep skin and somewhat poorer than the 
goat skins. Cabretta leather is suitable for 
some of the lower grades of women’s and chil¬ 
dren’s shoes. 

HORSE AND COLT 

Certain portions of the horse or colt hide are 
suitable for upper leather; principally that from 
the front or forward portion of the hide. The 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 17 

pelts are most commonly imported from Russia 
or South America. In the United States, as 
horse flesh is not generally eaten, as is the case 
in Russia and some of the countries in the east¬ 
ern hemisphere, the only horse hides are those 
coming from the horses that die naturally or 
have to be killed because of accident and the 
like. This, however, is a very considerable 
number. 

KANGAROO 

The skin of this animal has been popular 
material for making upper leather, but in recent 
years the animal has become almost extinct, and 
the few skins now obtainable command a high 
price. As a factor in modern shoemaking the 
kangaroo skin is, therefore, practically of no con¬ 
sequence. The appearance of kangaroo skin is 
different from that of most other leathers used 
in shoe uppers. Instead of the usual grained 
effect it has a pitted surface, as though the skin 
had been impressed all over its surface with fine 
pin points. 

DEER 

The skin of the deer makes a very satisfac¬ 
tory leather for the uppers of shoes but the 
quantity available is very limited. The skin 
commonly called buckskin was originally a 
deer skin. At the present time, however, the 
genuine deer skin is so difficult to obtain that 


18 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

it is seldom seen. The so-called buckskin on 
the market today is generally a cattle or calf 
skin with a suede finish. 

BUYING AND SELLING OF HIDES AND SKINS 

Packer hides are sold almost exclusively from 
Chicago although the hides may originate and 
be shipped from branch packing houses in other 
cities. This makes Chicago the greatest market 
in the world for hides in the raw, salted state. 
These are known in the leather business as 
green salted hides. Hide quotations are made 
in Chicago every day and all other markets base 
their operations upon the Chicago quotations. 
The tanners, as a rule, buy through brokers, 
ordering several carloads at a time, often as 
many as ten or twenty. When one stops to con¬ 
sider, for example, that in the latter part of 1919 
the price of a carload of packer hides was from 
$15,000 to $18,000, it will be understood that 
large amounts of money are needed to finance 
the leather industry. 

Country hides are collected by wholesale deal¬ 
ers and are sorted and graded. In any case they 
are a scattering and unsatisfactory quantity. 
The same applies to calf and sheep skins. In 
recent years butchers have to a large extent been 
obliged by trade conditions to stop killing cattle, 
calves and sheep and to buy their dressed meats 
from the packers. In the aggregate, however, 
the country hide business is important. Com- 


HIDES and SKINS 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 19 



5 ? 




3 'i |^1| 

? CQ $i <3 £ £ 



CLASSIFICATION OF HIDES AND SKINS 1 Gblishms) 










































20 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


paratively speaking, the packers kill about 70 
per cent and the country farmers and butchers 
about 30 per cent. 

IMPORTATION OF SKINS 

The proportion of skins imported from for¬ 
eign countries continues to increase rapidly. 
During the period 1915-1917, which represents 
fairly normal conditions, about 50 per cent of 
the cattle hides used in the United States were 
domestic and only about 45 per cent of the 
calf skins were from animals raised here. In 
the case of skins of goats and kids, the propor¬ 
tion of those imported was actually 97 per cent. 
Normally, imports of hides and skins are between 
5,000,000 and 6,000,000 pounds annually, val¬ 
ued at from $100,000,000 to $120,000,000. 

HIGH COST AND SCARCITY OF HIDES AND 

SKINS 

Although the great beef packers control a 
large percentage of the domestic supply of 
hides and skins they are not able to control com¬ 
pletely the wholesale price of hides because of 
the fact that American tanners have access to 
the markets of the world and can import hides 
and skins free of duty. The country-wide cam¬ 
paign in 1909, after the election of President 
Taft, to restore hides and skins to the free list 
was not essentially a movement to make hides 
cheaper. During many years economic condi- 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 21 

tions all over the world had been working to 
increase the demand beyond the supply. The 
tanners and shoe manufacturers realized that 
with all the commercial countries admitting 
hides and skins free into their ports the con¬ 
tinuance of a tariff of fifteen per cent in the 
United States would enable the packers and deal¬ 
ers in domestic hides to demand prices 15 per 
cent above the world’s level of values. Under 
normal conditions, and with no tariff on foreign 
hides, efforts to exact inordinate prices are de¬ 
feated by the tanners purchasing increased quan¬ 
tities of foreign hides and skins. The resulting 
decrease in the demand for the domestic product 
automatically results in a decline to the standard 
of price as set by world competition. 

The basic cause of high prices in the leather 
industry is the steadily increasing consumption 
of leather without a corresponding increase in 
the production of hides and skins. Greater de¬ 
mand does not create a greater supply of hides 
and skins, for the reason that they are incidental 
or by-products, resulting from the slaughter of 
animals for food. The per capita consumption 
of beef, mutton and veal has been decreased as 
a result of the introduction of cereal foods, the 
stocking of rivers and lakes with fishes, the 
scientific operation of poultry farms and the 
introduction of cold storage systems and refrig¬ 
erator cars. As a result of all these things it is 
now possible to get along without the quanti- 


22 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


ties of meat per person our ancestors thought 
necessary. When we consider that in addition 
to this state of reduced supply of leather each 
person now requires a greater number and vari¬ 
ety of shoes, not to mention the many other 
demands upon the leather trade, such as that 
made by the automobile, it becomes apparent 
that economic conditions are responsible for the 
extreme cost of leather today as compared with 
prices a decade or more ago. 

It may seem a far cry from these reflections 
about the economics of the hide and leather 
supply to the sale of shoes at retail. However, it 
should be remembered that in the campaign for 
free hides in 1909, in order to have the law 
changed so that hides might be imported without 
duty it became necessary to make the concession 
that shoes also be placed on the free list — 
where they have since remained. But this ques¬ 
tion is likely to recur at any time when a new 
revenue law is in process of legislation at Wash¬ 
ington. 

INFLUENCE OF WAR UPON HIDE AND SKIN 

SUPPLY 

The effect of the European war upon the hide 
and skin supply and hence upon the quantity of 
leather available has already been felt to some 
extent. However, the full force of it will not 
be understood until after the adjustment to 
peace conditions is complete. Leather is one 


DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 23 

of the most important munitions of modern war¬ 
fare. It is used not only for soldiers’ shoes but 
for harness and many kinds of military accoutre¬ 
ments and supplies. 

As has been previously explained, the number 
of hides and skins produced in a given time is 
not determined by the demand for leather but 
by the number of animals slaughtered for food. 
The war, involving as it did, almost all the civi¬ 
lized nations, enormously increased the con¬ 
sumption of leather, but the supply was main¬ 
tained also because of the coincident demand 
for meat to feed the armies. The slaughter 
of food animals increased tremendously, re¬ 
sulting in larger supplies of both flesh food 
and leather. There is every reason to sup¬ 
pose that the herds of cattle and sheep have been 
depleted to an extent that may threaten the fu¬ 
ture supply. It is reasonable to suppose that 
during these years of readjustment hides and 
skins will continue to be scarce and high in cost 
and that leather and shoes will have to be sold 
at rates far above the prices of a few years ago. 
A careful study of the leather situation will lead 
anyone to the conclusion that it is out of the 
question to expect a return to the low prices that 
formerly obtained. 

PRICE MOVEMENTS 

The following chart serves to show the general 
advance in prices of leather during the period 


24 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 



JAN. 
191 O 

JAN. 

1915 

JAN 

1919 

NOV 
191 9 . 

150 





1-40 




i 

130 




j 

120 




if 

1 1 o 




j / 

IOO 



/ 

/ ✓ 

/ 

90 



/ j / 

/ 

so 



i 


70 



/ ;/ 

/ '7 


6 o 


/ 

/ 

' // 

// 


30 


/ 

/ 

t 


4-0 


/V 



<30 


.J 



20 





I O 






CM ART- PRIG E<5 op LEATHER.. 

GLAZED KID, BLACK- ___ 

CALFSKIN ... 

SOLE LEATHER_ 

























DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF LEATHER 25 

1910 to 1919. For instance, the price of 
black glazed kid advanced from 33 cents per 
square foot in 1910 to $1.36 in November 1919; 
an increase of 312 per cent. Calfskin advanced 
from 30 cents to $1.50 per square foot during 
the same period. This represents an increase 
of 400 per cent. Sole leather, which is sold by 
the pound, jumped in price from 45 cents to 
$1.06, or 135 per cent. These figures bring out 
clearly one of the chief factors that have con¬ 
tributed toward the increase in the price of shoes 
today, as compared with the prices of a few 
years ago. 


CHAPTER II 
TANNING OF LEATHER 

SOFTENING, CLEANING AND UNHAIRING 

The preparation of the hides and skins for 
tanning depends first of all upon the condition in 
which they are received. If the pelts are green 
salted or fresh, as removed from the animal, the 
tanner can go ahead at once with the cleaning. 
If, however, they are dry it is necessary to soften 
them by soaking with water and by subjecting 
them to a process known as milling. The pelts, 
after having been thoroughly soaked, are placed 
into a revolving drum or mill. This process 
serves to soften up the pelt and to restore its 
original flexibility. The method originally em¬ 
ployed in carrying out this process was that of 
rubbing the pelt by hand after it had been 
soaked. However, this method is no longer of 
any practical importance. 

It is to be expected, of course, that when the 
hides and skins are received they are not suffi¬ 
ciently clean to be taken up in the first process 
of tanning. They are washed thoroughly, and, 
if necessary, scraped in order to remove any 
flesh or foreign matter. 


26 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


27 


The next process is that of removing the hair 
— known as unhairing. This consists of treat¬ 
ing the pelts to a bath of caustic lime which 
causes the roots of the hair to loosen so that re¬ 
moval of the hair may be made by rubbing or 
by scraping with a knife. In the case of 
hides to be used for sole leather the lim¬ 
ing is not carried far enough to soften the hide 
and dissolve the cement substance between the 
animal fibres. Sometimes instead of liming, the 
pelts are sweated in a closed room. In this 
process decomposition goes just far enough to 
loosen the hair roots. The hair is then removed 
either by scraping off by hand or by running 
the pelt through a special machine provided for 
that operation. 

BATING OR PUERING 

When the hair has been removed the skins are 
subjected to a process called bating. If lime 
were left in the skin the effect would be to retard 
the process of tanning and cause the leather to 
be harsh. In the early days it was discovered 
that manure, containing ammonia and other 
chemical properties, has a natural affinity for 
lime and this material was therefore used, and 
is today, as part of the tanning process to neu¬ 
tralize all traces of lime. The process is called 
bating or puering. 

The pelts are put into a bath and the warm 
liquor is circulated. The action upon the skin 


28 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


may be one either of fermenting, brought about 
with the use of bran and water, or it may be a 
bacteriological action. In the latter case a 
culture of bacteria is first prepared in a warm 
solution. When the skins are subjected to this, 
the germs or bacteria immediately operate to 
check the action that was originally caused in 
applying lime as part of the cleaning process. 

Another action of the bacteria is that of open¬ 
ing the pores of the skin and of cleaning them so 
that they will be in a condition to receive the 
tanning liquor that is to be used in the next fol¬ 
lowing process. In the bating process the skin 
is also freed of all superfluous gelatine. 

IMPORTANCE OF BEAM HOUSE 

With the advancement of the tanning industry 
and of the greatly increased demand for leather 
of all kinds and for all uses, tanners are now 
agreed that the quality of leather produced is 
largely dependent upon the care and skill given 
to it in the beam house process. This is the part 
of tanning in which the lime is taken out, and 
upon the success or failure of this depends a 
great deal of the success of leather. 

In the case of the large hide it is necessary 
that it be cut into different parts, such as bends, 
sides, shoulders and the like, because each of 
these sections is to be used for different pur¬ 
poses and requires different methods of tanning. 
An illustration is given to show the several parts 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


29 



SECTIONS INTO WHICH HIDES ARE CUT 
















30 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


into which hides are cut. The main part of the 
hide, which is, of course, the back, and which is 
called the bend is the part used for shoe pur¬ 
poses principally. 

Finally the hide or skin is given another 
soaking to complete the swelling and put it in 
the best condition for absorbing the tanning 
material. In order to take out the least trace of 
caustic lime a weak acid bath is generally used. 
The pelt is now ready for tanning. 

THE TANNING PROCESS 

Up to this stage the hide or skin is still only 
raw animal matter. Decay has been tempo¬ 
rarily stopped, but if the pelts were left in this 
condition they would soon begin to decay. If 
they were dried, to stop decay, the resulting 
product would be hard and stiff and of no value 
for shoe material. The process of tanning, in 
addition to stopping the decay, must make the 
hides or skins either hard and firm or soft and 
pliable, according to requirements, and of neces¬ 
sary strength for the use to which the leather 
is to be put. 

In order to do this it is necessary to change 
the animal matter of the hides and skins by 
the use of either vegetable or mineral tanning 
compounds into the entirely different substance 
that is called leather. In other words, the tan¬ 
ning material acts upon the fibres of the skin 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


3 i 


of the animal so that they undergo a complete 
chemical change and become leather. 

BARK TANNING MATERIALS 

As previously explained, almost every tree and 
plant contains chemicals that wall, after a 
fashion, change hides and skins into leather. 
Many years ago the tanners of the United States 
had the advantage of an almost unfailing supply 
of the barks of various trees. Hemlock was 
obtainable in almost unlimited quantities in New 
York state, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michi¬ 
gan and Wisconsin, while oak bark was plentiful 
in the southern part of the United States. Hem¬ 
lock and red oak are still reasonably plentiful 
on the Pacific Coast. 

As the result of the distribution of hemlock 
there grew up a chain of tanneries in which hem¬ 
lock bark was used, extending from Massachu¬ 
setts, straight across the northern states to 
Wisconsin. Another group of tanneries was 
established, beginning in Pennsylvania and fol¬ 
lowing the hemlock region down along the Appa¬ 
lachian Mountains into the southern states. 

In late years tanners have been obliged to rely 
more and more upon imported tanning materials, 
although recently a considerable business has 
developed in the southern states where an in¬ 
dustry has been established to make an extract 
of chestnut wood to take the place of the failing 
supply of oak bark. 


32 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


Immense quantities of quebracho, sumac, 
gambier, mangrove, wattle and other tropical 
and semitropical products have augmented 
native tanning materials. The depletion of 
our bark supply and the introduction of 
extracts from various other trees and plants, 
both domestic and imported, have made 
somewhat misleading the use of the old terms of 
the leather industry, oak, hemlock and union 
(union being a combination of oak and hemlock), 
as applied to the tanning materials for leathers. 
The modern tanner operates by combining the 
various barks and extracts, because of the short¬ 
age of some of them, or in order to make special 
kinds of leather. Very little strictly bark- 
tanned leather is made today although the very 
high grade oak and hemlock sole leather is al¬ 
most exclusively bark-tanned. 

CHROME TANNING PROCESS 

Within recent years a new process of tanning, 
called chrome tanning, has come into use, par¬ 
ticularly for upper leathers. A German scien¬ 
tific man named Schultz invented or discovered 
the process. He came to America and secured 
a patent on his method. Two Philadelphia 
tanners became interested in Schultz and his 
method and a company was formed to control 
its use. After the expiration of the patent the 
Schultz method came into general and perma¬ 
nent use by tanners. 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


33 


Sole leather is still largely tanned by the 
vegetable or bark process because the chrome 
process has not yet been satisfactorily developed 
for general use for sole leather. Upper leather, 
however, is now more and more tanned by the 
chrome process. The tanning material is a 
bichromate of soda or potash, hence the term 
chrome tanning. So-called chrome alum is one 
of the common bichromates of soda used. The 
chrome process is also called the mineral process, 
as distinguished from the vegetable process , in 
the case of hemlock and oak tanning. The 
chrome requires only a very short time for com¬ 
pletion as compared with the hemlock and oak 
process. 

For example, it may be stated that the aver¬ 
age time required for tanning upper leather ac¬ 
cording to the bark process was about twenty 
days. The chrome process can generally be com¬ 
pleted within twenty-four hours. To explain this 
feature of time saving it may be stated briefly 
that according to the bark process the skins are 
placed in the liquid bath and the chemical ac¬ 
tion allowed to develop naturally. According 
to the chrome method the tanning liquid and the 
skins are placed together in a revolving drum. 
The effect of this is to stimulate the chemical 
action and also to bring about a more complete 
tanning due to the forcing of the liquid into the 
cells of the skin. 

In the chrome process of tanning, the skins 


34 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


are submerged first in a weaker tanning liquor, 
for the reason that if they were subjected to a 
strong solution at once there would be a ten¬ 
dency for the pores of the skin to contract and 
resist the penetration of the liquor. By putting 
the skins into a weaker chrome bath first, they 
open up on the surface and permit the liquor 
to work through and through. The stronger 
solution then completes the work without resist¬ 
ance. 

Following this first chrome bath the skins 
are treated with a second bath in a solution 
of hyposulphite of soda. There is then no 
further possibility of decay; the skin has been 
converted into the new substance — leather. 
One of the principal points of difference is that 
unlike the raw animal product, it cannot be dis¬ 
solved in water. This feature of leather is of 
particular importance in connection with its use 
for shoe making purposes. 

The chrome process makes possible the pro¬ 
duction of a flexible upper leather. In fact, 
the great advancement in women’s shoemaking 
in the last ten or fifteen years, particularly in 
the way of the development of colored shoes and 
of light kid shoes, is due to the development of 
the chrome process. It was first successfully 
applied to goat skin in the manufacture of glazed 
kid. It is now used for nearly all calf skin and 
side upper leather and to a small extent, for 
sole leather. 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


35 


RE-TANNED LEATHER 

Within the past few years what is termed 
chrome re-tanned leather has been produced. 
Expert leather chemists have not been able to 
explain exactly the chemical action of re-tan¬ 
ning. But its practical action is simple enough. 
After the leather has been tanned by the chrome 
process, it is further treated with a bark tan¬ 
nage. In other words, after one system of 
tanning has been carried as far as it will go, an- 
' other tanning agent or substance will take up 
the work and continue still further the tanning 
process. There are, however, no upper leathers 
tanned by this method. 

SOLE LEATHER TANNING 

Sole lather is probably the most common 
and best understood product of the tannery. As 
previously explained, there are several common 
terms which have to some extent lost their mean¬ 
ing in the development of the industry. How¬ 
ever, the terms oak, union and hemlock still 
specify quite definitely the three kinds of sole 
leather tanning. While the employment of ac¬ 
tual bark without any other tanning agent has 
largely gone out of practice and has been re¬ 
placed by a combination of vegetable tanning 
materials, the resulting leather still has the 
same characteristics of the original three types 
of bark-tanned leather. 


36 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


Oak leather is light and fair in color. Hem¬ 
lock has the characteristic red color, while union 
is the shade between the extremes of oak and 
hemlock. In a general way oak sole leather is 
considered the highest quality, union coming 
next and then hemlock. So much depends, how¬ 
ever, upon the quality of the hide and the 
weighting materials used, that a given tannage 
of hemlock may be intrinsically superior to a tan¬ 
nage of oak. These weighting materials, which 
will be discussed later, consist of bark or ex¬ 
traneous substances which are put into the 
leather to give it body or weight. This applies, 
however, only to leather sold by the pound. 

THE BARK-PROCESS DESCRIBED 

In making sole leather the hides, after having 
been prepared, as previously described, are put 
into a vat of rather weak tanning material so 
that the beginning process of tanning may de¬ 
velop slowly. The hides remain there for 
periods depending upon the thickness of the 
hide and the kind of leather desired, and from 
time to time the strength of the tanning material 
is increased. Then they are put into vats, 
known in the trade as lay-aways. The bottom 
of the vat is covered with a layer of ground 
bark, and then a layer of hides is put in. Next 
is put on another layer of ground bark and again 
a layer of hides, and so on. The vat is then 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


37 


filled up with tanning material, made by dissolv¬ 
ing ground bark. This process is repeated six 
or eight times over a period of several months 
until the hides are thoroughly tanned. Within 
late years various machine processes have been 
developed. However, in all of them the method 
is similar. The machine holds the hides on 
shelves and the tanning material flows through 
the machine in such a way that the hide receives 
first the weaker tanning material and gradually 
the stronger until it is fully tanned. Of course, 
the advantages are those of time and labor sav¬ 
ing. 

After the hides come out of the tanning ma¬ 
terial it is necessary to remove what is known 
as the bloom which is a yellowish coating on the 
surface of the hides. This is done by striking . 
The striking process is now commonly done by 
machinery. The machine consists of a disk car¬ 
rying a series of blunt knives and has an ad¬ 
justable foot lever to regulate the amount of 
pressure. The knives come down with a quick 
blow and at the same time scrape along the sur¬ 
face in a way to remove the bloom, lay the grain 
of the leather, improve the surface and bring 
out the natural color. 

Next some form of mineral oil or cod liver oil 
is rubbed into the skins on the grain side and 
then the skins are dried in sheds. Air is forced 
among the hides by fans and carried off by 
ventilators. 




38 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 



CUTTING THE SOLE 























TANNING OF LEATHER 


39 


OAK SOLE LEATHER 

As already explained, oak sole leather is nor¬ 
mally the highest grade of tannage and is dis¬ 
tinguished principally by its fine grain, close 
compact texture and its light tan or straw color. 
Because of its tough character and its close 
fibrous texture it resists water and will wear 
down before cracking. It is by many con¬ 
sidered better than any other leather for flexible 
soles requiring waterproof qualities. 

An illustration is given to show the method 
of cutting the sole. The leather after having 
first been cut into strips to the width desired is 
run through the machine. Two knives operate 
alternately up and down to cut out the sole, 
as shown in the sketch. 

HEMLOCK LEATHER 

Hemlock sole leather normally is dark red in 
color. It is hard and inflexible. The color and 
character of the leather are caused by the 
strong tanning properties of the hemlock bark. 
This is sometimes modified by the use of bleach¬ 
ing materials, after the leather has been tanned, 
or by diluting the tanning materials. The re¬ 
sult is that of giving the leather the appearance 
of a spongy texture. 

Hemlock leather is used extensively for men’s 
and boys’ stiff-soled, heavy shoes where little 
flexibility is required or expected. Because of 


40 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


its long wearing qualities it is the best leather 
for certain of the cheaper grades of nailed or 
pegged shoes. Hemlock when used in shoes, 
where a flexible sole is required, does not give 
good results because it cannot resist the con¬ 
tinued bending to which it is subjected. After 
the sole is worn half through the continued 
bending causes the sole to crack crosswise. 
Then, at the crack, the pores of the skin are 
opened up and the ground moisture readily pene¬ 
trates through the sole. However, the best tan¬ 
nages of hemlock sole leather would be better 
even for flexible soles than the poorest tannages 
of so-called oak or union sole. 

UNION LEATHER 

The texture and appearance of union leather 
is dependent upon the proportion of oak and 
hemlock bark used. In recent years oak has 
become so expensive that union leather is now 
commonly tanned by a combination of hem¬ 
lock and other tanning agents. The red color 
and the hard texture are modified by bleach¬ 
ing the leather to the desired color and texture. 
This produces leather that lacks the fine, close 
tannage of genuine oak leather and at the 
same time prevents the hard tannage of hem¬ 
lock leather. Union leather produced in this 
manner is a sort of mongrel, being neither oak 
nor hemlock and not possessing the best qualities 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


4 i 


of either. However, on account of the economy 
in cutting qualities (a larger percentage of the 
hide can be cut into soles than in the case of oak 
leather) it is largely used in the manufacture of 
soles for cheap shoes where a greater degree of 
flexibility is required than can be obtained from 
straight hemlock tanning. This is particularly 
true in the case of moderate-priced women’s 
shoes. 

CHROME SOLE LEATHER 

Chrome re-tanned sole leather is coming into 
more general use every year. Waterproof, 
chrome-tanned sole leather is more expensive 
than any other sole leather and is said to out¬ 
wear bark-tanned sole leather two and three 
times. It may be distinguished by its blue 
green color, in which condition it is generally left 
in the finished shoe. The leather is flexible 
enough to be used in all kinds of shoemaking. 

Untreated chrome sole leather is almost en¬ 
tirely made into athletic shoes when provision 
against moisture does not need to be considered. 
The leather is very slippery when wet and for 
that reason it is well adapted only for shoes to 
be worn in dry climates. It has very good wear¬ 
ing qualities. Its color is a greenish white. 

In chrome-tanned sole leather the fibres of 
the skin are contracted and it is impossible to 
plump or weight the leather. In a bark tanned 
leather the fibres are swollen and the hide may 


42 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


be made almost any weight, according to the 
amount of tanning material forced into the skin. 
This increase in weight of bark-tanned leather 
is called gains of tanning, and amounts to the 
weighting of the leather with tanning materials 
and with oils and greases. As sole leathers are 
sold by weight, the chrome leather cannot be 
sold in competition with the vegetable-tanned 
leathers because of this gain in weight in the 
tanning of the leather. 

TANNAGE OF UPPER LEATHERS 

The tannage of upper leathers by the bark or 
vegetable process is practically identical with 
that of the tanning of sole leather, excepting 
that weaker tanning materials are used. Of late, 
the chrome process, already explained, has been 
developed to such an extent that it is now used 
for practically all black-finished upper leathers. 
Quite recently it has been developed also for 
colored upper leathers. It seems certain that 
within a few years the tannage of upper 
leathers by any other means will be very uncom¬ 
mon. 

The preparation of upper leather for tanning 
is carried out in the same way as that for sole 
leather. The skins are put into a chrome bath 
which is made by dissolving bichromate of 
potash or soda in boiling water, slightly acidified. 
The chemicals work into the very heart of the 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


43 


leather and form a permanent, indivisible part 
of the whole. The tanning material cannot be 
washed out or separated, as can frequently be 
done when upper leathers are tanned by a vege¬ 
table process. The result is an extremely soft, 
light leather, particularly suitable for the uppers 
of shoes. It is non-absorbent and durable. It 
is not affected by water — even hot water; while 
vegetable tanned leather is inclined to get hard 
and shrink under similar circumstances. Fur¬ 
thermore, it is not easily stained and can readily 
be made washable. 

Upper leathers are sometimes tanned by other 
chemical means. One of these processes is 
called tawing. The skins are soaked in a solu¬ 
tion of lime and salt. As this would leave them 
stiff and hard they are later filled with a paste 
of egg yolks and flour or sometimes an oil, such 
as olive oil. This is worked in by a machine; 
after which the skins are finished in the same 
way as other upper-leather skins. Only a small 
amount of leather is made by the tawing process. 
This, generally, is used for the uppers of 
women’s shoes. 

The Indians tanned skins into leather by the 
simple process of smoking them. Smoke, as we 
know, has the effect to contract or draw together, 
and this, after a fashion, served the purpose 
of the Indian in tanning skins. The Eskimo 
is known to have made leather by the primitive 
process of chewing it. 


44 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


DRESSING OF UPPER LEATHER 

Small skins, such as calf skins, are dressed 
whole, that is without splitting, but the larger 
pelts, such as cowhides, sheep and horsehide, are 
split. Leather to be used for soles, however, is 
not split because the full thickness of the hide is 
required in manufacturing. 

For shoe purposes only the outer or grain 
split of the leather is used, except in the case of 
very cheap shoes where an imitation grain finish 
may be put on an inner split in order to make it 
usable. The inner or flesh splits are sometimes 
used also for innersoles in the lower-priced shoes. 
All leathers are required to be shaved so as to 
give them an even thickness over the entire 
surface. 

The skins are next scoured in warm, soapy 
leather. All upper leather, whether vegetable 
or chrome tanned, must be fat liquored. That 
is to say, a certain amount of fatty material 
must be applied to the skin in order that it may 
be made mellow, workable and serviceable. 

Fat liquoring is an important step in the 
process of tannage. The difference in the final 
product of different tanneries is often due to the 
difference in fat liquors used and the way in 
which they have been applied. In addition to 
oils, such as cod liver oil, fish oil, neat’s foot oil, 
and wool fat oils which are used in fat-liquoring 
the light upper leathers, tallow and waxes are 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


45 


combined to make the leather partly waterproof 
and to assist in producing desired effects in 
the finish. 

It is well to point out in this connection, that 
leather is fat-liquored to protect the fibres of 
the material from frictional wear. These fibres 
must be oiled or lubricated on the same prim 
ciple that parts of a machine that are subjected 
to friction must be oiled. The dry fibres of 
the leather, rubbing together, would soon break 
and the result would be that the leather would 
give poor wearing service in the shoe. 

SNUFFING 

Before adding the dressing, in the case of 
upper leather, it is sometimes necessary to shave 
off the grain and to fill in the surface so as to 
cover up defects, such as fat wrinkles and 
scratches. This process is called snuffing. The 
same method is employed to produce a very 
smooth surface desirable as a style of finish in 
certain uses of the leather. 

DYEING 

In general the process of dyeing leather is 
much the same as that used in dyeing fabrics. 
The most common method at the present 
time is known as drum dyeing. The skins are 
put into a tank which contains the dyeing liquid. 
This tank or drum, as it is known, is then re¬ 
volved or rotated for a sufficient time to enable 


46 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


the skins to completely and evenly take up the 
coloring material. They are then removed from 
the drum, rinsed clean and hung up to dry. 

A later method is that known as flat-surface 
dyeing and is quite commonly used in the case 
of cordovan and some other colored leathers. 
By this method the skin is stretched out on a 
table and the dye is put on with a brush. Of 
course, in either method of dyeing it is necessary 
to prepare the skin by applying first a mordant 
which unites with the chemicals of the dye to 
fix the color. After the flat-surface dyeing, the 
excess coloring matter is washed off and the 
skin is dried in the same manner as in the case 
of the drum dye. 

COMBINING THE DRUM DYE AND THE FLAT- 

SURFACE PROCESSES 

With tan colored leathers it has now become 
quite customary to combine the two methods. 
The drum or bath dye forms the real foundation 
color, and the flat-surface dyeing is afterwards 
employed to improve the general appearance. 
In the case of chrome-tanned leathers, because 
of the compactness of the fibres, the skins are 
frequently dyed before fat-liquoring. This is 
necessary for the reason that if the skins were 
allowed to dry after fat-liquoring and before dye¬ 
ing the fibres would contract and it would then be 
almost impossible to permeate the leather suffi¬ 
ciently with the dye to produce a good result. 


TANNING OF LEATHER 


47 


For this reason it has recently become a general 
custom to dye chrome leather twice, first by the 
bath dyeing process, then by the flat-surface or 
brush dyeing. The result is to give a better 
evenness of dye and a greater freedom from the 
appearance of defects and fat wrinkles. The 
tannage in colors of chrome leather is an industry 
that has been developed very rapidly within the 
past few years. Until the development of the 
method of re-dying by the flat-surface method, 
it seemed impossible to get the same smoothness 
that resulted in the case of vegetable tanned 
leather. This was so because of the fact that 
the vegetable process fills up the imperfections 
whereas the ordinary chrome process does not. 

The chrome black leather was first developed 
and it proved so much better than vegetable- 
tanned black upper leather that tanners kept 
working to develop also a satisfactory method 
of dyeing chrome upper leather in colors. This 
process of re-dyeing by the flat-surface method 
seems to have overcome all of the difficulties. 

This so-called “painted leather ’ 7 as a matter 
of fact is fully dyed through and through in a 
dye bath first and then an additional surface 
dye is put on. Of course, an occasional un¬ 
scrupulous tanner might be content with simply 
a flat-surface dye and as a result his leather, 
when the edge was scrubbed off, would show up 
the inner part of the skin as undyed. 

Some tanners have tried to overcome dyeing 


48 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


difficulties and to produce a fine smooth-finished 
chrome colored leather by tanning first in chrome 
and then retanning in some vegetable material. 
This process is used quite commonly in the case 
of heavy leathers and has been specified for 
army shoes. It seems better, however, in the 
case of upper leathers for fine shoes to retain the 
customary chrome tannage and then to add a 
flat-surface dye after the first bath dye. 

KINDS OF DYES 

While natural dyes such as cochineal, indigo 
and the like, have been used in the past to dye 
leather for fancy shoes, they have been replaced 
in recent years by the coal tar dyes. In using 
these aniline dyes it is possible to omit the mor¬ 
dant which is otherwise required in order that 
the skins may take the color evenly. The reason 
a mordant is not necessary is that the tannic acid 
used in the tanning process acts as a mordant 
itself. The development of aniline dyes has 
made possible a wide variety of colors in shoe 
leather. The cost of these dyes is less; another 
advantage is the matter of time saving in their 
use, as well as their greater brilliancy of color. 


CHAPTER III 

TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 

SIDE UPPER LEATHER 

Side upper leather is made from cow hides. 
If very light hides of first quality are used it 
is difficult to distinguish the leather from calf 
skin after it has been made into shoes. At the 
present time, the leather is most commonly 
tanned by the chrome method. It has good 
wearing qualities and is reasonably fine in ap¬ 
pearance. 

There is an old prejudice against “cowhide” 
leather. While this was perhaps justified years 
ago it is not warranted in the case of modern 
tannages and finishes. As a matter of fact, 
shoes of very high grade side upper leather will 
give better service than those of the very low 
grade calf skin. The chrome process has revo¬ 
lutionized the making of upper leather and has 
made possible the development of a satisfactory 
leather from cow hides. Modern methods of 
finishing have added to the improvement of the 
product so that today all of the well known 
finishes of calf skin are duplicated in side uppers 
of cowhide stock. Seal grain, buff oil grain and 


49 


50 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


satin calf are various finishes of side upper 
leather in imitation of various types of calf skin. 

CALF SKIN 

The qualities of calf skin have already been 
described in Chapter I in discussing the differ¬ 
ent types of hides preparatory to tanning. As 
was there stated, calf skins have always been 
preferred as a material for making shoe uppers, 
especially for men’s shoes. In substance, fine¬ 
ness of grain and texture there is nothing quite 
in the same class as high grade calf skin. This 
stock has been a favorite for so many years that 
it is perhaps the most generally understood 
leather. In the majority of instances, a shoe 
salesman does not have to explain further when 
he tells a customer that a shoe is of calf skin. 

The fact should be remembered, however, that 
calfskin is by no means the only desirable leather 
for shoe making purposes. It serves its best use 
when a fairly substantial shoe is required. A 
kid skin, for instance, is lighter and more porous 
and has its special advantages in those cases 
where coolness and light weight is desired. 

BOARDED CALF 

The finish of calf skin known in the trade as 
boarded calf is that of a tanned skin having a 
pebbled or checkered pattern of fine creases. 
The effect is produced by a process called 
boarding , and is obtained by rubbing the skin 


TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 51 


with a board in order to raise the grain and 
to bring out more prominently its natural 
beauty. The term Box calf is generally used 
to designate this finish. Strictly speaking, how¬ 
ever, it is a private name originally used to 
designate a manufacturer’s special brand. But 
it is now commonly used in the trade to represent 
any leather that is boarded so as to have a 
grained effect. Cow hide is frequently made in 
imitation of boarded calf skin by passing it, 
under pressure, through rollers having the de¬ 
sired pattern; in that way reproducing it upon 
the leather. Box calf is almost entirely water¬ 
proof and is made in either black or tan color. 
It has come into general use both here and 
abroad. 

Willow calf is the same as box calf, except 
that the name is applied to colored stock. This 
name was originally privately owned but has 
now come into general trade usage. 

SMOOTH-FINISHED CALF 

The names Velour and Gun Metal are also 
among those that are privately owned by calf 
skin manufacturers. These too are terms now 
generally used, perhaps in injustice to the own¬ 
ers, to designate a smooth-finished black calf skin. 

Mat calf is a dull-finished calf skin, used most 
commonly for the tops of shoes. It has a soft, 
dull, black finish, resulting from a treatment of 
bee’s wax and olive oil. 


52 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


When mat leather is used in the uppers of 
patent leather shoes, it is necessary that particu¬ 
lar care be taken if oil is to be used in cleaning 
or dressing the shoe. Although the oil could be 
used to advantage on the mat calf it would have 
the effect to ruin the finish of the patent leather. 
The salesman would do well to bring this fact to 
the attention of the customer. 

Russia calf, so called, was originally not calf¬ 
skin at all, but split leather. The process orig¬ 
inated in Russia and as first produced the 
leather was a deep red color, possessing a charac¬ 
teristic odor. This leather was not of sufficient 
tensile strength for shoes and was used for purses 
and other articles not requiring the strength 
demanded in shoe leather. The tannage was, 
however, of so desirable a nature, owing to its 
smoothness, flexibility and excellent appearance 
that our tanners perfected it for calfskin, and 
hence made it possible for shoes. This process, 
improved to date, makes what is known as 
Russia calf. 

Originally this leather was treated with birch 
oil to give it the characteristic odor of the Russia 
calf, to help soften the leather and to furnish 
a protection against insects. 

Wax calf is finished on the flesh side with a 
wax-like surface. This was one of the earliest 
methods of finishing calf skin. At the present 
time, however, there is very little of it being 
manufactured. 


RUSSIA CALF (Smooth) 
Natural Size 


RUSSIA CALF (Smooth) 
Enlarged 



GUN METAL (Smooth) CALF 
Natural Size 


GUN METAL (Smooth) CALF 
Enlarged 








TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 55 

Burnished calf skin is similar but generally of 
a finer quality. 

SUEDE FINISH CALF 

This leather is finished on the flesh side to 
imitate velvet cloth. The word suede is equiva¬ 
lent in the French language to the word Swedish; 
the finish having first been developed in Sweden. 
The term ooze leather is also used to designate 
the suede finish. This also was originally the 
copyrighted name for one manufacturer’s brand 
of suede leather. Velvetta, a calf leather, is still 
another trade name which suggests the soft ap¬ 
pearance and feeling of velvet characteristic of 
suede leathers. All classes of suede are finished 
on the flesh side of the leather and are treated 
to produce a nap surface to represent that of 
velvet. Most commonly suede is made in white, 
cream and other light colors. In spite of the 
delicate appearance the leather has it possesses 
very excellent wearing qualities. 

GLAZED CALF 

The finish of the glazed calf is more of a 
glossy effect rather than the very shiny or 
glistening finish of patent leather that is sug¬ 
gested by the term glazed. The finish is pro¬ 
duced first by the application of a thick coating 
of seasoning mixed with black or other coloring 
matter, and then by having this rubbed into the 
skin under pressure. The polishing surface is a 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


56 

glass agate which is worked back and forth 
upon the leather until the coloring matter is 
forced in and the glazed or glossy finish is pro¬ 
duced by friction. 

PATENT LEATHER 

In the trade much discussion develops upon 
patent leather. There have been times when 
manufacturers and shoe retailers have had 
printed cards put into the cartons and have 
posted notices in the stores declaring that patent 
leather shoes were not to be warranted. It is 
true that the method of making patent leather 
is not one absolutely to guarantee long wearing 
qualities. But this is true also in differing de¬ 
grees in the case of various dressed and colored 
leathers. However, patent leather prospers for 
the very good reason that it is the most beautiful 
finish for shoes for dress and evening wear. 

The early patent leather troubles were almost 
invariably due to the wearing of the shoes under 
wrong conditions. Shoe manufacturers and tan¬ 
ners who have made investigations along this 
line have found cases of servant girls scrubbing 
the front steps and hired men mowing lawns 
while wearing cheap patent leather shoes. It 
should be remembered also that much of the 
criticism of patent leather dates back to the 
early days when the present improved system of 
making this leather was not known. The 
processes have been so largely perfected that 


TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 57 

the old arguments against it no longer hold. 
At the same time the shoe trade and the consum¬ 
ing public have become more thoroughly edu¬ 
cated concerning patent leather and do not now 
subject it to the rough wear for which it is not 
intended. 

Patent leather, as it appears in shoes, is 
usually of three kinds, patent colt, patent kid 
and patent side leather, which is a cow hide. 
There was at one time also a small amount of 
so-called French patent calf used in the United 
States. This actually was a product of Ger¬ 
many. It was a vegetable tanned leather with 
a heavy glazed finish. The objection to a finish 
of this kind is that there it not sufficient flexi¬ 
bility to it and as a result it is likely to crack 
readily. Patent colt and kid are used for the 
most part in the best and medium grades of 
shoes, and patent side leather in the medium and 
cheaper grades. 

Patent side upper leathers or splits have more 
thickness than the ordinary run of colt or kid. 
As far as wearing qualities go, patent leather 
made from splits would not, on the average, be 
expected to resist breaking-through as long as 
patent colt or kid. Side leather, being a split 
of cowhide, has the fibres of the skin cut through 
or across laterally, thus, in a measure, untying 
what we might call the “ knots ” formed by the 
natural interlacing of the fibres. The whole 
skin of colt or kid, not split, and used as nature 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


58 

made it, is by the same token intrinsically 
strong; the fibres have not been “ untied.” As 
far as finish is concerned, if equally well done, 
there should be no more checking in patent side 
leather than in colt or calf. Whatever may be 
said in comparing side leather and colt or kid 
applies to the same leathers when japanned. 

THE PATENT LEATHER PROCESS 

Chrome tanned skins are used entirely in the 
manufacture of patent leather. Skins to be 
used in making patent leather are given a 
slightly different process of chrome tannage 
than that used to tan skins for other finishes. 
It is a variation in the process used mainly to 
produce more firmness in the leather. After the 
skins have been tanned they are then freed of 
all greasy matter in order to put them in con¬ 
dition to receive the finish and to prevent the 
latter from peeling after it has been applied. 
In some cases one daub coat and two varnish 
coats are put on, in others two daub coats and 
one varnish coat and in still other cases one daub 
coat and one varnish coat are applied, depending 
on the character of the skin. 

The basis of these coatings is essentially 
boiled linseed oil. The varnish contains in addi¬ 
tion the required coloring matter. One of the 
chief functions of the linseed oil coating is to 
give flexibility in the finish. It is evident, of 
course, that without this flexibility the patent 



SOLE LEATHER (Cowhide) SOLE LEATHER (Cowhide) 

Natural Size Enlarged 











TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 61 


leather would crack and thus be worthless for 
shoe making. Another important part of the 
process is to get a finish that will not dry out. 
Various methods and the use of a variety of 
different substances have been introduced as a 
means to arrest drying of the patent coating af¬ 
ter it has been applied to the leather. 

After the application of the varnish coat, the 
skin is put into an oven which is heated 
to a temperature of from 120 to 140 degrees 
Fahrenheit and is dried for about 24 hours. 
It is then put in the sun and allowed to re¬ 
main from six to ten hours, depending on 
weather conditions. This is done to dry the skin 
thoroughly and to remove the tacky or sticky 
feeling. The skin is then removed from the 
frame and after trimming and measuring is 
ready to be assorted for weight and quality. 

It is practically impossible for a person to tell 
from outward appearance the difference in qual¬ 
ity of shiny leathers. However, on general 
principles, the'leather with the lighter finish, on 
which the grain shows through the enamel, will 
prove more serviceable than that on which the 
finish is so thick as to hide the grain. The use 
of reputable makes is therefore the dealers’ chief 
safeguard against inferior quality. 

• CARE OF PATENT LEATHER 

When a shipment of patent leather shoes 
comes to hand, after being in transit during cold 


62 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


weather, the utmost care in handling should be 
exercised for the reason that the cold weather 
has a tendency practically to freeze the finish. 
The warmer temperature of the store will, how¬ 
ever, bring the leather to its normal condition 
without any bad effects. There should then be 
no further danger of cold-cracking in handling. 

In order to restore the bright appearance to a 
patent leather shoe it is not necessary to apply 
a great deal of dressing paste. This is especially 
true when the shoe is new. The use of a damp 
cloth to take off the surface dust is all that is 
required. The- coating of shoe paste is not as 
bright as the patent leather itself and when ap¬ 
plied to the shoe will naturally detract from its 
appearance. 

Care should be taken when shining the shoe 
with a strip of cloth, not to rub the leather so 
briskly that the friction will cause the leather to 
burn. 

A sudden change in the temperature and 
weather conditions to which patent leather is 
exposed has often been the cause of damaging 
it. As with other materials of fine texture, pat¬ 
ent leather requires reasonable care. For ex¬ 
ample, the best results could hardly be expected 
with a dancing pump that had been used in the 
very warm atmosphere of indoors all evening 
and immediately after had been exposed to the 
cold and snow of outdoors. 


PATENT LEATHER 
Original photograph retouched to show the 
shiny effect produced in japanning the grain 
side of the leather. 



SUEDE FINISH CALF 

To show the dull finish resembling that of cloth. 
The skin is finished on the flesh side and as a re¬ 
sult the grain of the skin does not appear on the 
finished side of the leather. 




\ 


TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 65 


Sometimes patent leather in cold weather will 
show signs of checking during the first few days’ 
wear. (Checking means the creasing of the 
leather in small squares.) It often leads the 
customer to return the shoe because of the fear 
that the leather will continue to check and even¬ 
tually ruin the shoe. It should be impressed on 
the mind of the customer that after the notice¬ 
able checking of the first few days, the leather 
will thereafter check so gradually as to be hardly 
noticeable, provided, of course, it is a good piece 
of patent leather. After the wrinkles in the 
leather have become set to conform to the walk¬ 
ing movement, there should be no further creas¬ 
ing of the shoe. 

POPULAR USAGE 

The modern patent leather is a great deal 
softer and more comfortable on the foot than 
the old patent leather, on account of the soft 
chrome tannage. It will conform with almost 
any costume and has grown to be suitable for 
almost any occasion. The lines of the last or 
design of the shoe are brought out to excellent 
advantage in the patent leather shoe. Another 
claim frequently advanced for it is economy 
from the standpoint of shining. An important 
point to bear in mind at all times is that patent 
leather shoes should be fitted carefully and 
snugly to give the wearer the best results. 


66 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


CUTTING THE SKIN 

Following is an illustration to show the lay¬ 
out of a skin to produce the maximum results in 
cutting. The principal points to be considered 
are those of reducing the amount of wastage 



LAY-OUT OF A SKIN FOR CUTTING 


and of placing the pattern so that the best parts 
of the skin may be used for the most important 
parts of the shoe. Some skins lend themselves 
much more readily to one pattern than another 
and a knowledge of this is a fine point in a good 





TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 67 

buyer’s qualifications. If he is a cutter and 
familiar with the patterns to be used, he is much 
better equipped to get full value for his money 
than a man without this knowledge. 


CHAPTER IV 

TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER ( Cont'd) 

KID LEATHER 

From what has previously been said in dis¬ 
cussing goat skins, the reader will have gathered 
something of the size and importance of the kid 
leather industry. Especially in recent years the 
development of business in glazed kid has been 
tremendous. Strictly speaking, the term “kid” 
is a misnomer because the skins of the baby kid, 
which are the only true kid skins, are used for 
making cheap gloves. The glazed kid of com¬ 
merce is made from the pelt of the adult, short 
haired goat. There is no other shoe material 
that combines the peculiar qualities of glazed kid. 
The skin is mature and complete in upper struc¬ 
ture and yet is fine in texture. Goat skins, be¬ 
cause of the peculiarity of their fibres, cannot 
be split by any splitting machine. However, the 
sheep skin, calf skin and the pelts of similar 
animals can easily be split. When a goat skin 
is too heavy, instead of splitting, it is first shaved 
on the flesh side and then ground by means of 
abrasive wheels to produce an even surface. In 
a shoe the kid skin is especially easy and com- 
68 


TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 69 

fortable on the foot. It lends itself admirably 
to coloring and is responsible to a large extent 
for the great variety of fashionable shoe styles 
and colors recently brought out. 

VARIETIES OF KID LEATHER 

There are sixty-eight recognized kinds of goat 
skins and each possesses its own peculiarities 
of texture, thickness and grain. The skins are 
made into either glazed or mat kid; often tanned 
by the same chrome process. Glazed kid de¬ 
rives its name from the French word “glace,” 
meaning glassy. Its finish is obtained by strik¬ 
ing or burnishing the skins on the grain side. 
It is made in black and colors, particularly 
browns and greys, and is known by as many 
names as there are manufacturers of it. A name 
by which it is commonly known is vici kid. 
However, this is simply the trade name of a 
manufacturer who was one of the first to pro¬ 
duce and introduce the glazed finish of kid 
leather. 

Glazed kid is used in the uppers of shoes and 
makes a fine, soft shoe that is particularly com¬ 
fortable in warm weather. It is claimed for it 
also that it prevents cold feet in winter, because 
of the unrestricted blood circulation of the foot 
that is made possible in a shoe of soft leather. 

Mat kid is a soft, dull black kid — the softness 
being the result of treatment with bee’s wax and 


70 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


olive oil; a process similar to that used to pro¬ 
duce the same finish on calf and other skins. 
The finish is applied to the grain side, the same 
as with glazed kid. The use of mat kid is prin¬ 
cipally for shoe tops. It is very similar in ap¬ 
pearance to mat calf and is often used in prefer¬ 
ence to it as it is much lighter in weight and 
about as strong. 

Suede kid is really not tanned but is subjected 
to a fat process with an egg solution to make it 
soft and pliable. This method of finishing 
leather is called tawing. The skin is stretched 
and the color is applied by the flat-surface or 
brush method without having been previously 
batji-dyed. Consequently the color does not 
permeate the skin but is merely on the surface. 
Suede leathers are made from cabrettas and 
split sheep skins, in spite of the fact that they 
are called suede “kid.” 

The so called Castor kid is Persian lamb skin, 
finished the same as suede, and is used in making 
very soft, fine appearing leather for shoe tops. 
The leather is of such light weight that it is 
necessary to reinforce it with a backing of cloth 
before making it into shoes. This is done by 
glueing or otherwise adhering to the leather a 
cheap cotton fabric. In many of the names 
used in the trade it will be noticed that although 
the leather may be known as “kid” it does not 
necessarily represent a skin taken from the baby 
goat. The same is true also of other leathers. 



MAT KID 
Natural Size 



MAT KID 
Enlarged 



GLAZED KID 
Natural Size 


GLAZED KID 
Enlarged 





TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 73 
SHEEP SKINS 

The most serviceable purpose of sheep skins 
in the shoe industry is in the making of top 
facings, stays for buttons and lacings and other 
like uses. 

Buck skin, which was originally deer skin 
tanned in oil, is now made from any soft leather, 
especially sheep skin and light weight cow hides. 
It is finished in white, gray and yellow shades. 

Previously it has been pointed out that the 
genuine cabretta is a cross between a goat and 
a sheep. However, many of the cheap leathers, 
now called cabretta, are nothing more than 
sheep skin. The leather is too loose and 
stretchy for serviceable wear on the outer part 
of a shoe. 

COLT SKIN—HORSE HIDE — CORDOVAN 

The fronts or forward portions of the colt skin 
are largely used for shoemaking purposes; prin¬ 
cipally in the form of patent leather. From the 
horse there are certain muscular portions, taken 
from the butt of the animal, that have a very 
firm texture, which possess excellent wearing 
qualities and also allow for a desirable high 
polish. These are mainly used in making men’s 
shoes, under the name of cordovan or horse hide. 

Horse leather originally was considered the 
only kind fit for shoemaking and most of the 
specimens of boots made in the middle ages and 
somewhat later are of this sort of leather. Cor- 


74 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


dovan, a term which is now in common use 
for horse hide tanned into leather, takes its name 
from Cordova, Spain, which was a very famous 
tanning centre in the earliest days. The reason 
Cordova was a tanning centre was because of its 
immediate proximity to alum mines. Alum has 
always been and is today an important factor in 
tanning. Genuine cordovan, or shell cordovan, 
as it is more correctly called, is not made from 
the hide of the horse at all, but from a fibrous 
shell or flat muscle in the butt, underneath the 
hide proper. 

Children’s shoes are frequently made from 
what is called in the trade bear skin. This is 
commonly a smoked horse hide and is particu¬ 
larly desirable because it is washable and has 
long wearing qualities. However, the texture 
of the leather is very dense, and a high shoe 
made from horse hide is likely to draw the foot. 
For that reason the leather is much better for 
sandals where air circulation may be had other 
than through the leather itself. 

In recent seasons the word “cordovan” has 
come to have a meaning in the trade different 
from what it was originally. Of late it has been 
used to designate red or mahogany shades of calf 
skin leather. The advantage of cordovan is that 
it makes up into men’s shoes a fine looking and 
long wearing product and in addition is prac¬ 
tically water-proof. Whereas it is an excellent 
material for cold climates, it has, for general 



SHEEPSKIN 
Natural Size 


SHEEPSKIN 

Enlarged 



HORSEHIDE 
Natural Size 


HORSEHIDE 

Enlarged 











■ 



































































































































































TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 77 

purposes, long since lost favor in the race with 
calfskin, in the United States because of the ill 
effect it has upon the feet. 

CHAMOIS AND KANGAROO 

Chamois is an oil-tanned leather made origi¬ 
nally from the skin of a small animal known as 
a chamois. The leather is very pliable and is 
also washable. Like all other desirable leathers 
it is, of course, much imitated at the present time 
by oil-tanned leathers of various other animals. 

Kangaroo kid is the name given to a kid 
finished in imitation of the skin of a kangaroo. 
A few years ago a considerable quantity of kan¬ 
garoo leather was brought to this country, but 
the animal is now almost extinct. The kan¬ 
garoo kid has therefore been introduced to meet 
the demand for the original skin because the 
supply of the genuine product is so small that 
it is no longer a factor in the leather business. 

FANCY LEATHER 

A wide range of use is made of fancy leather 
in both men’s and women’s slippers, in toppings, 
insertions, facings and linings of shoes. The 
leather is made from'sheep and goat skins; par¬ 
ticularly from India sheep and goats. It is pro¬ 
duced in a variety of colors and finishes. 

All kinds of smooth, bright colors are used to 
decorate men’s and women’s slippers, and com¬ 
binations of all shades are found. Seals and 
glazed kid, in reds and browns, are used for 


78 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


men’s house boots and the whole gamut of color 
may be found in ladies’ boudoir slippers. 

Fancy leather is used extensively in combina¬ 
tion with patent leather in certain classes of 
shoes. There is a variety of finishes to choose 
from; seal, walrus, colored patent, gold, silver 
and champagne kid and dull kid in either 
smooth, box or pebbled finish. 

These leathers are also used as a means of 
decoration in insertions, panels, outside stays and 
the like, usually in strips, scrolls and other de¬ 
signs. Patent leather or ooze outside stays or 
scrolls of the same, are sometimes found on the 
vamp or forward portion of the shoe. Again, an 
inlay of gold or white kid may be used in com¬ 
bination with vamps of almost any color. 

Facings are selected from fancy leather to 
make the inside of the shoe attractive and to 
increase its wearing quality. Leather of dull 
or glazed finish is used, in typical shoe colors 
such as tans, creams and browns, for facings and 
side and back stays. 

About the same kinds of leather in tan, cream 
and gray shades are used for shoe linings. In 
addition may be found ooze leather that pre¬ 
vents the shoe from slipping at the heel, and 
waterproof leather to prevent decay. 

CARE OF LEATHER 

Even the best quality of leather will be de¬ 
stroyed through lack of proper care. It is im- 


TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER 79 


portant to know, perhaps above all other things 
in this connection the extreme danger of apply¬ 
ing heat to wet leather. Few people realize how 
sensitive leather is to heat. This applies more 
particularly to sole and vegetable tanned upper 
leather. Wet leather will not stand without 
damage more heat than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, 
or about the heat the hand will bear. Dry 
leather will stand a much higher temperature. 
The retail shoe salesman should caution cus¬ 
tomers that wet shoes rapidly dried before the 
fire or on a steam radiator are almost sure to be 
injured. Furthermore, good leather will be 
damaged just as readily as poor leather. The 
fumes from burnt gas are especially destructive 
to leather. Wet shoes placed above a gas stove 
are in double peril; first from the heat and sec¬ 
ond from the air that has been deprived of its 
oxygen and is charged with products of com¬ 
bustion. 

The prejudice against distinctive a work- 
shoes” frequently results in the use of fancy 
and fragile footwear unsuited for the purpose of 
the wearer. This is a very important considera¬ 
tion that should be explained to the prospective 
customer whenever the opportunity occurs. 

STUDY OF LEATHER 

It must be acknowledged that it is almost im¬ 
possible for even an expert to determine the 
exact quality of the leather after it has been 


8o 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


made into shoes. The manufacturer’s leather 
buyer, however, is required to know leather. 
He is in a position to examine carefully the 
stock in piece form, and upon his decision de¬ 
pends the quality of leather supplied to the fac¬ 
tory. On the other hand, it must be remem¬ 
bered that the standards of value in this 
business, as in all others, are quite definitely 
fixed and it is therefore largely a matter of the 
price the buyer is willing to pay that determines 
the quality he will receive. 

The shoe salesman should spend as much time 
as possible actually handling the shoes in his 
stock and studying the different types of leather 
so as to get a ready acquaintance with the main 
qualities of each. 

In general the quality of the leather depends 
upon the fineness, strength and flexibility of 
the skin and upon the carefulness and success 
of the tannage and finishing. In the finished 
shoe good leather may be recognized by the soft¬ 
ness, flexibility, evenness and clearness of color 
as evidence that the tanning has been entirely 
completed. Blotches in color result from 
spongy and loose texture and show unevenness 
in tanning. In a similar way, dry and hard 
parts are the result of irregular tanning. 

The strength and durability of the leather 
depend upon its texture and flexibility. All 
upper leather, when properly tanned, has a 
reasonable amount of strength. This will vary 



KANGAROO 
Natural Size 


KANGAROO 

Enlarged 










TYPES OF FINISHED UPPER LEATHER £3 

according to the use to which it is to be put. 
Sole leather, of course, should be firm and com¬ 
pact and free from stretch. 

The softness of the leather is a very much 
needed characteristic in the case of upper stock. 
This is brought out by the dressing and fat- 
liquoring. A good upper leather is soft and 
flexible and yet sufficiently firm to hold its shape 
and to wear well. A good upper leather is par¬ 
tially waterproof. However, a sole leather 
should be practically waterproof, provided it 
has been properly tanned. Leather that takes 
up moisture readily deteriorates rapidly and 
consequently does not give satisfactory service. 
Modern, well-finished upper leather is so nearly 
waterproof that if a drop of ink were dropped 
on the surface it would not soak in and might be 
readily wiped off without leaving any mark. 

In a well-finished leather the grain should be 
brought out and at the same time defects and 
fat-wrinkles should be obliterated by finishing 
or by snuffing. 

The color of good leather should be fast and 
sun proof. During the European war, when 
supplies of dyes from Germany were first cut 
off, some difficulty was had to get other dyes to 
replace them. However, the experience we had 
in developing our own product was finally so 
successful that we are now practically independ¬ 
ent of foreign supplies. 

The only way that the kind of leather, except 


84 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


sheepskin, can be definitely determined by sur¬ 
face appearance is by a study of the pile forma¬ 
tion or the way in which the hair of the animal 
was laid on by nature. This can be seen in the 
arrangement of the grain of the leather, that is 
to say, the hair holes or pores, where the hair 
has been withdrawn. What makes this deter¬ 
mination difficult is the minuteness of the grain 
— sometimes so small and numerous as almost 
to defy the unaided human eye. Also, some 
kinds of finishes, employing pressure on the sur¬ 
face, tend to close up or press together the grain 
of the skin. Leather finishers are expert in imi¬ 
tating the surface appearance of different kinds 
of skins. Where hot dies are used for this pur¬ 
pose the grain indications imitated are revealed 
on close examination by their extreme regularity 
of marking, something nature never does; to¬ 
gether with a slightly hardening effect on the 
surface. Sheepskin can be distinguished by the 
way the fibres are laid — differently than any 
other leather — they are not interlaced but laid 
more or less parallel. 


CHAPTER V 

FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 

GETTING AT THE MAIN FACTS 

During the war period when the United States 
was conducting ground schools to train young 
aviators a great deal of uneasiness was some¬ 
times expressed by students because they were 
not permitted to “feel the air” until they had 
been given at least three months of ground 
training. In spite of the cry for more flyers 
these vigorous young fellows were kept at their 
school books studying trigonometry, mechanics, 
navigation — just pure theory. Why not let 
them get into action? 

The answer is that Uncle Sam was profiting by 
the experience of those who knew thoroughly 
the war business and what it required. The 
solving of problems in trigonometry was a far 
cry from the flying of a plane over the enemy 
lines, but nevertheless a good part of the success 
of a bombing raid depended upon the under¬ 
standing of angles, the effect of gravitation and 
other principles that are often called “theory.” 

In the same way the shoe salesman is mainly 
interested to know how to increase his sales and 
to make more money. He is not a leather 
85 


86 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


tanner nor a cotton merchant. However, his full 
success as a salesman is gauged by his knowledge 
of his product. He must know leather, fabrics 
and the other materials that make up the shoe. 
Unless he does he will simply be offering a a 
pig in a bag” rather than intelligently selling 
his product on the basis of its merit. Fabrics 
constitute a most important part of the shoe and 
it is necessary to know what they are. 

IMPORTANCE OF FABRICS IN SHOEMAKING 

Since the early stages of shoe making, fabrics 
in some form have been used. The sandals of 
ancient China and India were of silk or some 
other fabric. And as civilization moved west¬ 
ward we find Egypt, Rome, France, England 
and the United States using cloth shoes and 
slippers. The steady improvement that has 
been going on year after year in the development 
of better textile processes has resulted to produce 
very highly desirable fabrics for shoe purposes. 
It is now estimated that about twenty per cent 
of the standard shoes and oxfords are made with 
cloth tops and vamps. In view of the fact that 
there is the great element of style, comfort and 
durability in these fabrics there is reason to 
believe that the percentage used in the future 
will continue to increase. 

In the making of shoe linings, for example, 
cotton fabrics are used almost exclusively be¬ 
cause there can be little question that they are 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 87 



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RELATION OF RAW MATERIALS TO THE FINISHED SHOE 
















88 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


the most suitable. Cloth is used to good advan¬ 
tage as a backing for light leathers, to prevent 
stretching and to give that firmness that makes 
for better results in maintaining the shape of 
the shoe. 


COTTON 

CLASSES OF COTTON FIBRES 

The use of cotton fabrics in shoe making has 
been growing rapidly in recent years. The de¬ 
velopment of finer grades of twill, canvas and 
other cotton cloths has led to their very great 
use as materials for shoe uppers, as well as in 
white and colored fabric shoes. At the same 
time cotton materials continue to be used for 
lining almost to the exclusion of all other ma¬ 
terials. 

The chief characteristics that determine the 
value of cotton fibres are their length, strength, 
color and fineness. The two best grades of cot¬ 
ton are those known in the trade as Sea Island 
and Egyptian. There is in reality a still finer 
grade of cotton known as Sakallarides, but the 
quantity of this available is so small in com¬ 
parison with the whole cotton crop that usually 
it is not mentioned in any general classification. 
The fibre of Sakallarides cotton is fine in tex¬ 
ture, of a brownish tint and measures from 
i 7/16 inches up to 2 1/2 inches in a very 
few instances. 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 89 

Sea Island cotton is of fine, white, silk-like 
appearance and has the long fibres so desirable in 
the making of threads and fabrics. The length 
of the fibre averages from 1 \ inches to if inches. 
It is fine and silky and the cloths made from it 
are the fine cotton fabrics, such as the higher 
grades of dress materials, outside cloth for ox¬ 
fords and the finest white cloth top-materials for 
shoes. Because of the fact that the staple is 
long the fibre can be spun into fine threads and 
yarn and still be very strong. In this connec¬ 
tion it is interesting to note that some of the 
best white cotton shoe fabric material will stand 
a bursting stress of 600 pounds to the square 
inch. This is greater than the strength of the 
best leathers of the same thickness. 

A lower grade in the range of quality is the 
peeler cotton. This is the best of those pro¬ 
duced to any extent in the United States and 
has a fibre varying in length from 1 1/8 inches 
to 1 5/16 or 1 7/16 inches in the extreme. A 
still lower grade is that known as upland cotton. 
This comes principally from the upland regions 
*of the southern states and particularly from 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
Texas. American cottons constitute a large 
and very important part of the world’s supply. 
A safe estimate is that they represent something 
more than six-tenths of the total quantity pro¬ 
duced all over the world. The upland cotton 
has a staple or fibre varying from f to if inches. 


90 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


It is used in making the great quantities of cot¬ 
ton fabrics for general purposes. Ginghams, 
sheetings and the medium grades of shoe linings 
and canvas and duck shoe materials are some 
of its products. 

TESTING AND GRADING 

Although the Sea Island cotton has been re¬ 
ferred to as the best and the Egyptian as second, 
there are certain exceptions to the general stand¬ 
ard. Naturally, a great deal depends upon the 
care given to the crop, the condition of the soil, 
weather conditions and the like. No two crops 
of Sea Island or any other kind of cotton can 
be identical in every particular. Indeed it may 
often be that certain of the Sea Island cottons 
may be lower in grade than the American upland 
cotton. It is necessary, therefore, that individ¬ 
ual consignments be carefully tested and graded. 

Cotton is bought and sold according to the 
length of the staple and the grade of the cotton. 
For instance, if the standard grade of cotton of 
seven-eighths inch staple is worth, say, thirty 
cents a pound, cotton of one and one-quarter 
inch staple might be worth about fifty cents a 
pound, depending, of course, upon the amount 
that might be readily available at the time and 
also the extent of current demand for it. 

In the cotton brokers’ offices experts known 
as classers or testers will take samples of cotton 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 


9i 


from a consignment; pull them out into smaller 
samples to determine the length of the staple and 
its quality. A good tester is able to tell at a 
glance within one-sixteenth of an inch the length 
of the staple of a particular sample. 

The next test for determining the value stand¬ 
ard of the cotton is that of grading. There are 
eight grades recognized on the New Orleans cot¬ 
ton exchange, as follows: 

Fair 

Middling Fair 
Strict Middling 
Middling 
Low Middling 
Good Ordinary 
Strict Ordinary 
Ordinary 

It is evident that in determining the value 
standard on the basis of small samples chosen 
at random there is bound to be something of 
chance or speculation involved. Assuming that 
all testers are expert there can be no assurance 
that the samples represent truly the condition 
of the entire bulk. It may be poorer in one 
case and better in another. Then too, there is 
the chance of a mistake in judgment. All things 
considered, however, it is to be wondered at 
that such a tremendous trading can be carried 
on smoothly in spite of the limitations. 


92 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS 

Manufacturers buy cotton according to grade, 
staple, tensile strength, etc., and then blend dif¬ 
ferent grades so as to get the desired effect at 
the lowest consistent cost for raw material. The 
manufacturing of cotton fabric is, in principle, 
a simple process. However, in modern practice 
it has been divided up into many separate pro¬ 
cesses in order to get the advantages resulting 
from simple unit operations. 

The first operation is that of opening up the 
cotton as it comes in the bale and then of run¬ 
ning it through a machine known as a picker 
which cleans out dust, weeds and other foreign 
matter. After the completion of this process 
the cotton comes out in a sheet or lap. At this 
stage the cotton is in loose form resembling 
sheets of cotton batting. Following this are 
two processes known as the intermediate and 
finisher pickers , the purpose of which is to loosen 
the fibres still more and to clean out more of the 
dirt and weeds. 

Continuing in the process are two operations 
known as carding and combing. The main pur¬ 
pose of both of these is to remove the last traces 
of foreign matter and the very short fibres and 
also to get the remaining fibres to lay parallel. 
The carding machine operates so that the lap 
or loose sheet of cotton is passed between two 
moving surfaces from which extend a great many 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 


93 


sharp wire teeth. These catch into the cotton 
and produce the double effect of cleaning it 
and of evenly arranging the fibres. As it comes 
from the machine the cotton is in the form of 
a round, soft rope of cotton about three-quar¬ 
ters of an inch in diameter. This is called a 
sliver. 

For some grades of cloth it is necessary to re¬ 
peat the process of carding in order to produce 
a cleaner and finer yarn. For the very finest 
grades of cloth, however, there is an additional 
process known as combing. In effect this is 
much the same as the carding; the point of 
difference being that it is a much more thorough 
process. 

Preparatory to weaving the fibres are next 
given a treatment known as drawing. Several 
slivers are fed through succeeding rollers of the 
drawing machine. Each following roller in the 
series revolves at a higher rate of speed than the 
one preceding, and as a result the cotton is 
loosened and drawn out. At the same time the 
slivers themselves are made to revolve so as to 
give enough twist to hold them together during 
the drawing out process. Two or three similar 
machines in turn continue the drawing and 
twisting. The last of these winds the cotton on 
a special type of spool, called a bobbin. It is 
then ready for the final spinning into yarn. At 
the next step the cotton is drawn out to the re¬ 
quired degree of fineness and the required num- 


94 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


ber of twists to the inch, according to the needs 
for different grades of cloth. 

Different kinds of fabrics require threads or 
yarns of one size and construction for the warp, 
which is the yarn that runs lengthwise with the 
cloth, and a yarn or different construction for 
those that run crosswise. These yarns are 
known as the weft or filling . The necessary re¬ 
quirements of size and construction are all pro¬ 
vided for in the spinning processes, which have 
been described. 

WEAVING 

Finally we have the actual weaving of the 
cloth. There are many types of looms each pro¬ 
ducing a different type of weave. The simplest 
is that known as the plain weave and consists 
merely of alternate cross yarns over and under 
each other in regular fashion. This is similar 
to the weave found in the ordinary market bas¬ 
ket made of flat strips of wood. The effect 
of this is shown in the first figure of those 
illustrating the different constructions of cotton 
goods. 

Figure B illustrates what is known as a duck. 
This differs from the sheeting in that the warp 
is made up of two threads or yarns laid together 
side by side, whereas the filling consists of a 
single yarn. This is known as a laid warp. 
Thus the filling passes over two threads at a time 
instead of the single thread as in the construe- 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 


95 



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A. Sheeting B. Duck with laid warp. 



WEAVE CONSTRUCTOIN OF FABRICS 

























































































96 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


tion of the sheeting. Another type of duck is 
that in which the warp and filling are made up 
of yarns consisting of two or more threads that 
have first been twisted together before being 
woven into cloth. 

Another type of weave is that known as a 
drill. This is made on what is called a box 
loom, having two sets of cross or filling threads 
so manipulated that the warp thread lays alter¬ 
nately under one filling thread and over two fill¬ 
ing threads. The result is to form a diagonal 
weave such as that shown in Figure C. 

Figure D illustrates a twill; in this case a 
three leaf twill. It will be noticed here that 
the warp is arranged alternately under one filling 
thread and over three. A four leaf twill would 
be one in which the warp was arranged under 
one filling thread and over four. The effect is to 
produce a more pronounced diagonal grain or 
pattern in the fabric. 

Still another type of weave for shoe fabrics 
is that known as the sateen weave. In this the 
warp thread is arranged in an irregular series 
under one filling thread and over several, gen¬ 
erally from five to seven. The effect of this is 
to produce a glossy surface. There are certain 
modifications of sateen weave introduced to 
bring out this satin surface in the form of a pat¬ 
tern. This is done on what is known as a jac¬ 
quard machine. The method is employed to 
produce figured patterns, such as those found in 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 


97 


brocaded silks. For use in fancy shoes and slip¬ 
pers there is a very general demand for brocaded 
silks and for similar effects in cotton. 

Plain weave fabrics are occasionally found in 
which the figures have been added by an em¬ 
broidery process. This may be produced either 
by an operation during the weaving, or by an 
embroidery machine after the material has been 
woven. Designs in shoe fabrics are also pro¬ 
duced by embossing, in much the same way that 
designs are stamped on leather, book covers and 
the like. 

DYEING PROCESS 

A great quantity of the fabrics produced are 
required to be dyed in order to make them suit¬ 
able for the uses to which they are to be put. 
Dressmaking materials, of course, are called for 
in every conceivable color. So also with fabrics 
for fancy pumps, slippers, cloth uppers and the 
like, where a variety of shades is needed. Gen¬ 
erally it is customary to apply the color to the 
yarn before the fabric is woven or to the woven 
cloth in piece form. A third method is that of 
dyeing the fibre before it is spun into yarn but 
this process does not have as wide usage as the 
other two. 

There is required a high degree of technical 
skill in properly dyeing fabrics; also a knowledge 
of the chemical action that takes place in differ¬ 
ent kinds of fabrics. However, the basic idea 


98 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


is easily explained. Between the fabric and the 
dye used there is a natural attraction and as a 
result when they are placed together under the 
proper conditions a combination of the two takes 
place. The process is one of first mixing the 
dye in water and then of placing the cloth in 
the liquid. After the cloth has become thor¬ 
oughly saturated it is removed from the bath, 
the water is removed by drying and the color¬ 
ing matter remains fixed in the cloth. 

Although this is a statement of what the pro¬ 
cess of dyeing fabrics really is, the actual work 
of doing it is not so simple. There is first the 
necessity of selecting the form of treatment 
adaptable to the kind of dye used and the fabric 
to be treated. Then there are the succeeding 
stages of thoroughly washing the fabric before 
dyeing, of getting it in condition to take the 
color, then of saturation in the dye bath and 
finally a rinsing in clear water before drying. Re¬ 
finements and variations of this order will often 
be used but the general idea is stated. 

SELECTION OF DYE-STUFFS 

An important feature of dyeing is that only 
those dye-stuffs be used that have a strong at¬ 
traction for the fabric to be dyed. For example, 
a particular dye might have an attraction for 
cotton fibre but not for wool or silk fibre. In 
that case it could be used with success in dyeing 
cotton cloth but not for those of wool or silk. 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL 


99 


Likewise a certain dye might be more strongly 
attracted by the moisture of the foot or by rain 
water than by the fabric itself. In this case 
it is evident that the cloth would fade when sub¬ 
jected to such moisture and that it would there¬ 
fore be unsuitable for use as a shoe fabric or any 
similar purpose. This is simply a suggestion of 
some of the problems the chemist must meet in 
preparing dyes to serve all requirements. In 
using certain kinds of dyes it is necessary to 
apply what is known as a mordant, for the pur¬ 
pose of getting the dye to hold more perma¬ 
nently. The principle is the same as that of 
applying the mordant in tanning leather, as pre¬ 
viously described. 

BLEACHING 

Many fabrics to be used as parts of the shoe 
are required to be bleached. Some of them 
serve the purpose in the unbleached condition 
as they come from the loom, but others, espe¬ 
cially the exterior fabrics, must be either dyed or 
bleached; sometimes both. Briefly stated, the 
bleaching process is one of subjecting the fabric 
to oxygen gas which attacks the coloring matter 
and destroys it. 

The old method was to spread the fabric on 
the grass and allow the oxygen in the air to per¬ 
form its work slowly. This was very effective 
but too slow for most practical purposes; for a 


100 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


thorough bleaching weeks were required. To¬ 
day most bleaching is done with chemicals. 

Chloride of lime and sulphurous acid are 
among the most important of these. With the 
use of chloride of lime the process is one of 
passing the fabric through successive baths 
which apply the bleaching agents and wash the 
cloth, one after another until the final stages of 
stretching and drying are reached. Strips of 
cloth several miles in length are often passed 
through in one operation. Bleaching with sul¬ 
phurous acid is generally done by exposing the 
damp fabric or yarn to the gas created by burn¬ 
ing sulphur. The same results could be ob¬ 
tained with the use of water saturated with the 
gas but the former method is more commonly 
used. 

TESTING FABRICS 

The amount of wearing service a fabric will 
give depends mainly upon the type of its con¬ 
struction, its weight and the quality of fibre 
from which it was made. Different parts of the 
shoe require different kinds of service in the 
fabric. For instance, in a lining wearing service 
would be of first importance while with an 
interlining, as will be explained later, it is bulk 
that is most essential. With this in view it is 
for the manufacturer to determine what he re¬ 
quires of a shoe fabric and then to get the cloth 
that meets his specifications. 


FABRICS —THE RAW MATERIAL ioi 


The principal tests are those for tensile 
strength and bursting stress. The former is 
gauged by the amount of pull or tension that one 
inch of the cloth’s surface will withstand. This 
test is made both in the warp and the weft. 
The bursting stress is gauged by the cloth’s re¬ 
sistance against pressure over an area equal to 
one square inch of surface. A certain grade of 
fabric, then, might be said to test for tensile 
strength 81 pounds on the warp, 55 pounds on 
the weft and 185 pounds bursting stress. On 
the basis of these figures the manufacturer would 
be well able to determine the kind of service he 
might expect from such a cloth. 


CHAPTER VI 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 
INTERIOR FABRICS — LININGS 

LINING AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE SHOE 
The importance of lining as a part of the 
shoe is not generally understood. The wearer, 
of course, knows practically nothing about it 
and up to recent years the manufacturer and re¬ 
tailer did not give it the attention it deserved. 
There has been too much of a tendency to regard 
the lining as a “trimming” rather than as a fac¬ 
tor which plays or should play an important part 
in the wear, appearance and comfort of the 
shoe. 

Cotton materials as light as four ounces to the 
square yard were at one time quite generally 
used for lining purposes. These cloths, in or¬ 
der to give them more body, were loaded with 
starch to the extent of as much as 50 per cent 
of their original weight. The result was a fabric 
that appeared to have considerable substance 
when first placed in the shoe but as soon as it 
was subjected to the moisture of the foot the 
starch softened and as a result the lining prac- 
102 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


103 


tically melted away. The average lining at 
present in use is a 7 to 7^ ounce fabric. How¬ 
ever, it is now quite generally agreed that a 
lining, to properly do all the work it should, 
ought to be considerably heavier and stronger 
than this; as much as 50 per cent heavier. 

PURPOSE OF THE LINING 

The most important functions of a shoe lin¬ 
ing are to reinforce the leather and seams of 
the shoe and to absorb moisture from the 
foot. In doing this It keeps the shoe in 
shape longer and adds to its life by pre¬ 
venting premature stretching and breaking of 
the leather. The actual difference in cost per 
pair of shoes between the very poorest of linings 
and that of the very best is only about 12 cents. 
Between the average lining now used and the 
best qualities the difference is considerably less 
than this. Economically therefore it would 
seem to be a serious mistake to use anything but 
the best of lining in view of the fact that shoes 
made with such linings will wear as much as 20 
per cent longer than those made with poor lin¬ 
ings. Under present conditions this means any¬ 
where from one dollar to three dollars worth 
more service to the wearer at an extra factory 
cost of but a few cents per pair. 

The use of cheap shoe lining has been a fea¬ 
ture of shoe making since the earliest days. For 
that reason the shoe manufacturer, figuring his 


104 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


profits in close competition and on a small mar¬ 
gin per pair cannot afford to use the best of lin¬ 
ings in grades of shoes for which the price stand¬ 
ard has already been fixed. Some dealers are 
therefore finding it desirable to agree to pay the 
few cents extra necessary to secure the best of 
lining. In such cases the manufacturer will usu¬ 
ally agree to use first quality linings in all shoes 
for which they are specified. 

The illustration 1 below shows the part of the 
shoe where the wearing strain is greatest. It 
also points out the results following from the 
use of an inferior grade of lining fabric. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE FABRIC 

There are four different types of fabrics used 
for shoe lining purposes. These are technically 
known as sheetings, drills, twills and ducks. The 
difference in weave of these fabrics has already 
been explained and illustrated. Sheetings are 
used only to a limited extent for general shoe 
lining purposes. Their most common usage as 

1 From an advertisement of Farnsworth, Hoyt Co. 



FABRICS IN THE SHOE 105 

lining is in rubber bottomed sneaks, where a 
fairly good quality seems to give all the wearing 
service needed. However, in most types of 
shoes, sheetings have not tested out as well under 
the severe strain put upon them in the lining. 
The drill, twill and duck construction are used 
very extensively. Bleached drills and twills are 
used in women’s shoes, and in men’s shoes either 
a duck or unbleached twill. 

Although the duck has been used perhaps more 
extensively than the drill in men’s shoes, careful 
experiments have proved that the drill construc¬ 
tion is better for the purpose. A comparison 
of equal weights of cloth in a duck and a drill 
shows that the latter will give better wearing ser¬ 
vice. This is due to the fact that the warp 
threads, of which there are a great many more 
to the square inch than there are filling threads, 
are drawn on the surface of the fabric in such 
a way as to receive practically all of the wear. 
The filling threads, being less densely woven, 
naturally do not present as good a wearing sur¬ 
face but they are protected from most of the 
wear in the case of a twill. However, in a duck 
they must share the wear equally with the warp 
threads and as soon as the filling wears through 
the fabric is useless despite the fact that the 
warp threads may still be capable of much more 
service. Another point of advantage in favor 
of the drill is that it permits the foot to slip into 
the shoe more readily. 


106 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

STRENGTH OF THE LINING FABRIC 

Generally shoe linings have been made with 
the filling yarn or threads much weaker than 
those of the warp. This is a decided disadvan¬ 
tage because any fabric, like a chain, is no 
stronger than its weakest link. It is particu¬ 
larly true of fabrics used for shoe lining pur¬ 
poses for the reason that the strain on the shoe 
lining is about equally distributed on warp and 
filling. The average lining fabric will stand a 
breaking test of about no pounds on the warp, 
while the filling seldom runs more than 75 
pounds. To supply the extra strength and wear 
that will insure maximum reinforcement of the 
leather and satisfactory service, certain better 
grades of fabric are now being extensively used 
that have a breaking strength of about 150 
pounds on the warp and the same on the filling. 
This presents equal resistance to the strain from 
both directions. Such a fabric should wear 
twice as long as the best of shoe lining materi¬ 
als previously used. 

PLUMPING CLOTH 

In some cases it is necessary to provide a back¬ 
ing for the leather to serve as a means of giving 
the necessary firmness where fine, delicate skins 
are used for upper stock. This gives the 
strength to prevent the leather from stretching 
in the shoe. The process is one of cementing 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


107 


a piece of cotton cloth to the back of the leather 
before it is cut. For the purpose a cotton sheet¬ 
ing is generally employed, although other weaves 
are used to a small extent. This plumping cloth 
is supplied with a coating of cement, generally 
either rubber or gutta percha, so that when it 
is backed to a piece of leather and heat is applied 
the two become firmly attached. The combina¬ 
tion can then be cut and used in the shoe in the 
same way that other upper leather is used. 

Another method of using plumping cloth is 
to cut it into strips and to paste these to the 
back of the leather only at those places where 
the foot strain is to be the greatest. In this case 
the leather is reinforced although it is not given 
any degree of additional substance or body. 
Pasted on the inner side of leather used in the 
vamp, plumping cloth serves a very good use to 
relieve the strain and to prevent stretching. 
For example, that part of the vamp at the ball 
of the foot is subject to a heavy strain, especially 
when the wearer stands in one position for a con¬ 
siderable time. A reinforcement of plumping 
cloth takes a great deal of this strain from the 
lining and serves to prevent “bagging” of the 
leather so often seen in poorly made shoes. 

INTERLINING 

The interlining is used between the lining and 
the leather to give the necessary feeling of 
fullness in those cases where lighter weights 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


108 

of leather stock are used. For the purpose of 
interlining it is customary to use almost ex¬ 
clusively what is known as cotton flannel. This 
is simply a cotton lining fabric that has been sub¬ 
jected to a process of napping. This is done by 
the use of a machine having a great many small 
metal hooks which catch into the cloth and pull 
out the fibres so as to produce the effect of a 
wool surface. Such a fabric is entirely suitable 
for interlining, however, because it is body rather 
than strength that is essentially required. 

TOP FACINGS 

A top facing is a strip of leather or cloth 
sewn around the inner part of the shoe at the 
top. While sheep skin is very commonly used 
in women’s shoes and in the better grades for 
men, cloth is also employed quite extensively, 
particularly in women’s shoes. In the better 
grades of shoes a satin facing is generally used 
and in the cheaper grades a mercerized cotton, 
known as sateen. The satin is made with a 
silk face and cotton back while the sateen is a 
cotton fabric highly finished to give it lustre. 
It is on this facing that the name of the shoe¬ 
maker or dealer is usually stamped, printed or 
woven. Not a great deal of strength or wearing 
quality is required in a top facing. The main 
purpose is to give the shoe a more finished ap¬ 
pearance. 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


109 


INSIDE STAY 

Seam stays or reinforcements are generally 
made of cotton sheeting or drill that has been 
thoroughly sized or stiffened with starch or some 
other like substance to give it body. The bet¬ 
ter grades of stays are cut on the bias so that 
they will lay flat when sewn along the rounded 
edges of the inside of the shoe. As the purpose 
of these stays is to reinforce the seam and as 
they are not visible in the shoe the only require¬ 
ment is that the material be strong enough to 
serve the need. A good quality of sheeting or 
drill, properly sized to give the necessary stiff¬ 
ness, is all that is required. 

It will be noticed that in a great many shoes 
the inside heel stay is now made of heavy cotton 
webbing which replaces the leather heel stay that 
was used almost exclusively up to within a few 
years ago. The reason is that this high grade 
fabric has been developed and has been found 
to give equal wearing service to that of leather, 
and in some cases even better service. The 
point of importance is that although the fabric 
may be used to replace leather there is not any 
reduction in the wearing quality offered. 

BINDINGS 

Because of the fact that material used as a 
binding or facing shows on the inside of the shoe 
it is, of course, desirable that a better looking 
fabric be used than in the case of the inside stays 


no 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


that do not show. Certain of these facings are 
made of silk or silk and cotton. Others are 
made in worsted, which is a smooth finished wool 
fabric. 

In cotton some of the best grades of bindings 
are made from Sea Island yarns that have been 
mercerized and singed. The mercerizing pro¬ 
duces a lustre resembling silk and the singeing 
process removes the short ends of fibres so as to 
leave a smooth surface. Sometimes a polished 
cotton is used. This is made of a high grade 
Sea Island or Egyptian yarn, and as the name 
implies, it is actually polished. The polishing 
is done by the adding of a special lustre starch 
and then by running the fabric between rollers 
so that the friction will produce a polish. The 
result is to give a sheen that adds to the beauty 
of the finished article. Sometimes the yarn is 
polished before being woven into a fabric. The 
process then is varied in that after the starch 
solution has been applied the yarn is passed over 
brushes which operate to produce the desired 
polish. 

Succeeding cheaper grades of bindings are 
made from coarser cottons and without the 
polish, singeing or mercerizing, depending upon 
the grade of shoe for which they are to be used. 

PULL STRAPS 

Material used to make pull straps is made 
much in the same way as that for bindings. 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


in 


What is required is a good substantial piece of 
tape that will stand the strain made upon it in 
drawing the shoe on the foot. A heavy sheet¬ 
ing or drill weave generally serves the purpose. 


EXTERIOR FABRICS-BACKED CLOTHS 

A COMBINATION OF TWO FABRICS 

Cloths to be used as outer shoe fabrics are 
often required to be backed by other fabrics in 
order that they may be given more firmness and 
body that will enable them to hold their shape in 
the shoe. Silks, satins, woolen and cotton cloths 
are all backed to make them suitable for those 
uses where added firmness or thickness is needed. 

For example, let us consider the preparation 
of a cloth for canvas shoes. This is really a 
combination of two fabrics. The face of the 
material is a duck, somewhat similar in construc¬ 
tion but of finer quality than that already de¬ 
scribed as being used for linings. It is generally 
made of a better grade of cotton fibre, is heavier 
and is bleached white or dyed in tans, slate, etc. 
The fabric used for the backing is usually a 
heavy cotton drill or sheeting. The two cloths 
are stuck together by means of either a form of 
flour paste or tissues of rubber cement or gutta 
percha. The combining process is known as 
backing. This consists of passing the two cloths 
over steam heated rollers which furnish the heat 


112 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


necessary to dry the paste or fuse the cement; 
thus securely fastening the fabrics together. 

By this process of backing it is possible to 
produce a fabric that has the necessary weight 
and strength for canvas shoe purposes, at a cost 
considerably less than that of duck woven to the 
same weight. In fact there is greater strength 
in the combined fabric than there would be in 
a single weave cloth of the same weight. Also 
the former is not so bulky. 

METHODS OF BACKING 

A cloth backed with the use of paste has ex¬ 
cellent wearing qualities. In addition it is 
porous; thus permitting ready air circulation for 
the foot. On the other hand, it is not as soft 
and pliable as cloth backed with the use of 
gutta percha or rubber cement. 

The use of gutta percha tissue as an adhesive 
substance makes a fine appearing fabric that is 
strong and flexible. The opinion has sometimes 
been expressed that gutta percha does not have 
the lasting qualities of either the flour paste or 
rubber cement. However, there has been a vari¬ 
ety of experience in the use of adhesives so that 
it is not possible to set down any hard and fast 
rules on this point. 

Excellent results are obtained by the use of 
rubber cement for this purpose as it serves to 
produce a flexible and fine-looking fabric that 
will last. The chief point of disadvantage is 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


113 

that unless the cement is applied with very great 
care and skill the rubber will have a tendency 
to make the cloth non-porous and to that extent 
less desirable for shoemaking purposes. How¬ 
ever, there has recently been made great ad¬ 
vancement in the processes and skill of backing 
fabrics and it is now possible, even with the use 
of a rubber cement, to produce a cloth that is 
porous. Some idea of the strength of this 
cement may be had from the fact that certain 
of the backed cloths are guaranteed to remain 
cemented for a period of two years. There are 
other qualities, of course, that range down the 
scale to those that bear no guarantee at all. 

CARE OF THE FABRIC 

From what has been said concerning the paste 
and cement methods of backing cloths, the shoe 
salesman is in a position to understand why it 
is necessary that special care be taken in the use 
of cloth covered shoes. For example, if the 
cloth used has been processed with a flour paste 
it is clear that continued cleaning of the shoe by 
soaking with water would be fatal. The paste 
would eventually dissolve, the cloths would be¬ 
come separated and the shoe would be ruined. 
There would be the same danger in exposing 
the shoe to the rain. 

On the other hand, with a cloth on which rub¬ 
ber cement had been used, frequent attempts 
to clean the shoe with gasolene would be ruin- 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


114 



SOME SHOE PARTS ILLUSTRATED 

















FABRICS IN THE SHOE 115 

ous. In this case the gasolene would dissolve 
the rubber, the adhesive substance would be lost 
and, as in the other instance, the cloths would 
become separated. The method of cleaning the 
shoe, therefore, would be to use gasolene or 
some other such cleanser in the first instance and 
a water solution where rubber in any form is 
used. 


TOPPING CLOTHS 

CORKSCREW AND PLAIN WEAVES 

In the making of cloth uppers for women’s 
shoes a fabric of diagonal weave known as a 
corkscrew is now used very extensively. This 
is a cloth that has been developed especially for 
shoe making purposes. The weave is very fine 
and of twill construction. Corkscrew cloth used 
for uppers in the medium grade shoes is usually 
made with a woolen face and a cotton back. 
In the high grades an all-wool fabric known as a 
worsted is used. The corkscrew weave is also 
made of cotton in both warp and filling. This is 
used most extensively as an outside fabric in the 
making of white and colored oxfords. 

Cloth uppers for men’s shoes are generally 
made of smooth-faced woolen cloths with a 
short-nap surface. This is to be distinguished 
from the twill or corkscrew type of cloth used for 
women’s shoes. 


n6 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


COTTON SEWING THREADS 

SERVICE AN IMPORTANT FEATURE 

Every shoe salesman realizes that stitching is 
an extremely important feature of shoe making 
and that it has much to do with the comfort, ap¬ 
pearance and durability of the shoe. Yet very 
few people know much about the threads used 
in footwear. 

In many cases shoe manufacturers have based 
their estimates on price and appearance, and 
have given too little thought to the matter of 
comfort and durability. The shoe is useless if 
it does not hold together, no matter how fine its 
appearance when leaving the factory. For that 
reason it is well to consider the durability of 
the stitching thread, entirely aside from other 
requirements. There are times when footwear 
style will dictate the use of a specific material or 
when it may be necessary to select materials to 
meet a price. However, from the standpoint of 
true service, it is the quality of a shoe, and 
not style or price that should be the chief con¬ 
sideration. 

Just as any other vegetable varies in quality, 
depending upon methods of cultivation, climatic 
conditions, soil and the like, so the cotton plant 
varies. The selection of different grades of cot¬ 
ton to be used in making thread depends upon 
the quality and characteristics desired in the 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 



OUTLINE SHOWING PORTIONS OF A SHOE 
WHERE SEWING AND STITCHING 
THREAD IS USED IN THE 
UPPER AND SOLE 







n8 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

finished article. Most cotton thread used in 
shoes is made from yarns spun from Sea Island, 
Egyptian, or long-staple Delta cotton. 

PREPARING THE YARN 

Up to the point of preparing the yarn the 
process of manufacture is much the same as 
that already described in connection with the 
making of cotton fabrics. There are the suc¬ 
ceeding stages of opening the bales, untangling 
the cotton, cleaning and combing until finally 
the cotton emerges, properly drawn and twisted, 
in the form of single yarn. 

A single thread yarn measuring 840 yards to 
the pound is known as a No. 1 yarn. If twice 
840 yards to the pound, it is a No. 2 yarn and 
so on. Therefore, a No. 10 yarn would be one 
measuring 8,400 yards to the pound. The single 
yarn, however, is never used as a sewing thread. 
It is twisted together with another single thread 
yarn of the same size to make a two ply thread 
or with two others to make a three ply, with three 
others to make a four ply, and so forth. If, for 
example, a 30-3 cord thread were to be made, 
three strands of No. 30 single yarn would be 
twisted together into one thread. This would 
contain in yardage per pound 30 times 840 yards 
divided by the number of ply, which in this in¬ 
stance is three. The length of a pound of this 
thread therefore would be 8,400 yards. 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


119 


MAKING THE THREAD 

In twisting the single yarn together, the cor¬ 
rect number of turns to the inch is required in 
order to get the desired strength and smooth¬ 
ness and especially freedom from “kinks” caused 
by too hard twist. The thread may be twisted 
either to the right or to the left. However, most 
needle threads for machine use are left twist. 

From the twisting bobbins, the gray or un¬ 
bleached thread is reeled in skeins. At this 
point a thorough inspection is given to it for 
the purpose of detecting any faults that would 
impair its stitching qualities. The next process 
is that of dyeing or bleaching, according to the 
individual requirements. 

The final and most important step of all is 
that of finishing. Although the mechanical 
operations of finishing are the same among all 
thread manufacturers, there is a difference in 
the finishing dressings used. Each manufac¬ 
turer has his own private formulas or recipes for 
preparing these dressings to meet the require¬ 
ments of threads for various stitching purposes. 
Essentially the dressing is one of coconut oil, 
or some other softening oil, certain waxes and 
starch. 

The purpose of finishing is to polish and lubri¬ 
cate the thread, principally with the idea to 
create on it a surface that will withstand the 
friction caused by repeated drawing back and 


120 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


forth of the thread in the eye of the needle. 
Some idea of this strain and frictional wear may 
be had from the fact that in some machine sew¬ 
ing operations on shoes the thread in the eye 
of the needle passes back and forth through the 
material from fifty to seventy-five times, depend¬ 
ing upon the thickness of the leather sewn and 
the number of stitches made to the inch. 

After the finishing processes have been com¬ 
pleted the thread is rewound onto cones, tubes 
or spools; then labeled and packed for shipment. 
Winding is one of the most exacting operations 
through which the thread passes, especially when 
wound on spools. Because of the extra pressure 
and the additional draft or strain on thread when 
so wound, manufacturers are urging their cus¬ 
tomers to use thread on tubes instead of on 
spools. The special advantages of this are the 
following. 

1. The cost is considerably less. 

2. The tension or draft on the thread when be¬ 

ing wound on tubes or cones is less — 
consequently greater elasticity is insured 
to the customer when thread is wound on 
a tube. • 

3. In tube-winding the guides are of polished 

steel and therefore they do not have any 
tendency to cut or scrape the thread as 
is the case in the spool-winding operation. 

The most satisfactory of all cotton sewing 
threads are those made from the best quality 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


121 


Sea Island yarns or even a still better grade 
known as Sakellarides. A four-cord thread 
would be used for men’s shoes and a three or four 
cord for the lighter weights of leather as used in 
women’s shoes. The size of the thread, of 
course, depends upon the weight of the fabric 
or leather in the shoe, and the general style and 
purpose of the footwear being made. 

SUMMARY OF MANUFACTURE 

From the foregoing we may sum up briefly the 
various steps necessary to the manufacture of a 
good sewing thread: 

1. Selection of cotton of the required quality. 

2. Spinning and twisting the thread as free as 

possible from imperfections. 

3. Carefully dyeing and bleaching to prevent 

weakening of the thread. 

4. Tested methods of finishing that will accom¬ 

plish the results desired for different 
kinds of shoe stitching. 

5. Making up for the market in a package that 

will serve to retain in the thread all of its 
natural qualities and elasticity; thus re¬ 
ducing thread breaks to the minimum 
and eliminating knots and imperfect shoe 
stitching. 

MERITS OF COTTON THREAD 

For the reason that silk, linen and cotton 
threads are used in shoe stitching, it is well to 


122 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


consider briefly the relative merits of these dif¬ 
ferent threads. 

In shoes, silk thread is used chiefly to pro¬ 
duce a finer appearance in the finished article. 
Linen thread is rarely used excepting for stitch¬ 
ing on the soles. Cotton is used in all shoe- 
stitching operations, including sole stitching. 
In fact, it is used in about 80 per cent of the 
total of all seams in shoes. A great deal of con¬ 
troversy has centered around the relative merits 
of sewing threads of different kinds. By far 
the greater number of shoe manufacturers use 
cotton threads on the bulk of their output. On 
the other hand, there are others who favor the 
use of silk and of linen. 

This may be said, however, without prejudice, 
that cotton as a sewing thread for shoes has very 
excellent working qualities. In stitching ma¬ 
chines it can be worked smoothly and conse¬ 
quently with fewer breaks and delays to pro¬ 
duction. Because of its great durability and be¬ 
cause it withstands friction so well it is not likely 
to rip in the seams. Furthermore, it is the most 
economical of all threads. 

Due to improved methods of finishing in the 
past few years, cotton threads are now made in 
mercerized and silk finish so that in certain cases 
when these have been stitched into a shoe paral¬ 
lel with silk thread, even experts have found it 
difficult to distinguish the mercerized cotton 
from the real silk. 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


123 


LINEN 

LINEN ONCE THE FOREMOST TEXTILE 

The use of linen in the manufacture of cloth 
and twine has been known to man for more than 
four thousand years. Even in prehistoric times 
the cave-dweller who was accustomed to hunt for 
his dinner armed with a big boulder as ammuni¬ 
tion, knew how to raise flax and how to weave it. 
This was probably long before he conceived the 
idea of the use of metals; but he understood 
the weaving of linen fabrics. Indeed he made 
them so well that there are remnants of them 
still existing today. 

For centuries Egypt was foremost in the pro¬ 
duction of linen. In fact there was little compe¬ 
tition until late in the fifteenth century. Then 
it was that Europe took hold and production in¬ 
creased by leaps and bounds. Some idea of the 
importance of linen as a fabric may be had from 
the fact that it was the most generally used tex¬ 
tile until inventions made cotton fabrics cheap, 
not much more than one hundred years ago. 
Since then linen has fallen back into fourth 
place in point of annual production. It is now 
preceded by cotton, wool and hemp; named in 
order of their importance. 

PRESENT SOURCES OF SUPPLY 

Russia is the largest contributor to the world’s 
present supply of linen. Egypt produces con- 


124 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


siderable quantities as do also certain of the 
European countries, such as Holland, Ireland, 
France and Italy, but these rank only second in 
importance to the quantity supplied by Russia. 

After the flax has been grown it is necessary 
to pull the stalks from the ground and then to 
rot away the woody substance on the outside of 
the stalk in order to get at the linen fibre under¬ 
neath. These fibres, which average in length 
about twenty inches, are then combed to rid 
them of all foreign matter. After the comple¬ 
tion of a series of processes, which have for their 
purpose to separate the best fibres, the yarn is 
ready for spinning and weaving in much the 
same manner as that used to make other fabrics. 

COMPARISON OF LINEN AND COTTON 

Flax does not lend itself so readily to machine 
treatment in preparing the yarn as does cotton. 
A great deal of hand labor, first in pulling the 
stalk from the ground and then in the several 
operations of freeing the fibres from the stalk 
is required. All this greatly adds to the cost 
of the product. In addition there is a much 
smaller supply of linen available as compared 
with the supply of cotton. 

Because of the greater length of the linen 
fibre and its firmer construction there is greater 
tensile strength offered by it than there is in 
cotton even of the finest grades. It is also 
smoother, and when made into a fabric takes on 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


125 


a fine, fresh appearance that improves with con¬ 
tinued washing. However, for shoe making pur¬ 
poses the linen cloth is not a factor. 

A disadvantage is that linen is not as elastic 
as cotton and therefore both in the fabric and 
thread there is not the same flexibility or stretch 
that there is in cotton. Also, linen is subject to 
rotting when exposed to changes of wetting and 
drying, unless close care is given to it. 

LINEN SEWING THREAD 

In the early stages of shoemaking silk and 
linen threads were used almost exclusively for 
sewing and stitching. At present, however, 
the improvements made in the art of preparing 
cotton thread have been so great that it is pos¬ 
sible to get grades to serve almost every purpose. 

Without question, from the standpoint of 
strength alone linen is superior to cotton. But 
there is also to be considered the matter of ser¬ 
vice called for under wearing conditions of the 
shoe. Some manufacturers believe that the 
matter of tensile strength is only secondary and 
that if the thread is not elastic so that it will 
stretch to conform with the walking movement it 
is not the most suitable. To meet the objection 
a special type of stitch has been introduced and 
by some it is believed that this meets the re¬ 
quirements. The fact remains, however, that 
the use of cotton for sewing shoe uppers has 
steadily increased and that the quality of ser- 


126 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


vice has improved with the advancement in the 
art of making it. 

For stitching the sole of the shoe to the upper 
it is mainly strength that is desired of the thread 
and not much stretch. The linen thread, there¬ 
fore, is well suited and is widely used. 


wool 1 

QUALITY THE PRODUCT OF CENTURIES 

The art of spinning and weaving wool was 
handed down to the Europeans by the Romans 
who had acquired a special skill in this branch 
of work. Great Britain was first among the 
European peoples to manufacture wool fabrics. 
However, at the outset her principal success was 
in sheep raising. As a result, other countries in 
Europe drew upon Great Britain’s supply of raw 
wool and did their own manufacturing. It was 
not until many years later that the making of 
wool fabrics was put on a paying basis in Great 
Britain, even though it was the seat of the in¬ 
dustry in Europe. 

Success in making wool textiles depends, of 
course, to a large extent, upon the quality of the 
raw wool. Hundreds of years in sheep raising 
and gradual development of the best grades of 
wool-producing sheep have all contributed to¬ 
ward making the finer qualities of wool available 
today. 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


127 


PREPARING THE FABRIC 

The process of preparing wool for spinning 
and weaving follows along closely to that of pre¬ 
paring cotton fibres. After the sheep have been 
sheared there are the succeeding operations of 
grading the wool, of washing and removing dirt 
and other foreign matter, mixing the fibres ac¬ 
cording to the^id of cloth to be made, carding, 
spinning and fjally weaving of the cloth. 

There are combinations made of wool with 
other textiles, such as wool and silk and wool and 
cotton. The former has no usage in making 
shoe fabrics. However, wool and cotton is often 
used in uppers for men’s and women’s shoes. 
In this combination it is possible to produce a 
fabric of fine appearance at a considerable re¬ 
duction in price as compared with the all-wool 
product. The cotton is woven into the fabric 
so that it appears on the under side and there¬ 
fore it is not readily noticeable when the cloth 
is placed in position in the shoe. 

WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS 

From the wool fibre there are two classes of 
cloths made, known as woolens and worsteds . 
The chief point of difference between them is 
that the fibres of the woolen cloth are not made 
to lie even and parallel but are crossed in all di¬ 
rections and have extended fibres all over the 
surface of the cloth. A good illustration of this 


128 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


character of weave is that found in the flannel 
blanket which shows clearly the arrangement of 
the fibres. 

For the worsted fabric the wool fibres are re¬ 
quired to be thoroughly combed so that they will 
lie parallel and straight. After having been 
prepared in this way they are then twisted to 
form the yarn from which the worsted cloth is 
made. A familiar example of the worsted cloth 
is the blue serge as used in men’s suits, or the 
corkscrew cloth used in the uppers of women’s 
shoes. These have a firm, smooth surface as 
distinguished from the “matted” surface of the 
woolen cloth. 

Owing to the nature of these two fabrics it 
is possible to make woolen cloth from inferior 
grades of wool and at a lower manufacturing 
cost because of the fact that, in preparation, the 
fibres do not need as many combing operations 
to get them evenly arranged. To make a good 
worsted cloth requires that the best of wool fibre 
be used and that they be thoroughly combed, 
recombed, drawn out and twisted to produce 
evenness and strength in the finished product. 

ALL-WOOL CLOTHS 

In addition to the variation of weave construc¬ 
tion in wool fabrics there are further variations 
brought about by mixing different grades of wool 
fibres. There may, for example, be a mixture 
of two different qualities of wool such as a high 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


129 


grade Australian Botany wool for the warp and 
a lower quality wool from a cross-bred animal, 
for the weft or filler. In this instance it is to 
be expected that the better quality of wool is so 
woven that it appears on the face of the cloth. 
This makes possible an article of finer appear¬ 
ance at a cost considerably lower than that 
of a cloth made entirely of the higher grade 
wool. 

UNION CLOTH 

Another variation is that of a cloth made 
partly of wool and partly of cotton. The fact 
has already been mentioned that these are woven 
in such a way that the wool appears on the 
surface whereas the cotton is on the under side 
A cotton backing of this kind serves to add much 
of firmness, strength and weight. Then too 
there is the considerable item of saving made 
possible by replacing wool with cotton. By 
using two warp yarns of wool (similar to that 
shown in Figure B of the illustrations of weave 
construction) and a cotton filling, it is possible 
to produce a cloth with a wool surface on both 
face and back. Cloth made in this way has the 
appearance of an all-wool article but costs con¬ 
siderably less. Also it will give much better 
wearing service than a grade of all-wool fabric 
that might be had at the same price as the union. 

In making lower priced shoes, manufacturers 
formerly used, almost exclusively, a lower grade 


130 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


of all-wool cloth and had it backed by cementing 
to it a cotton fabric, to add body and strength. 
However, the later development of weaving the 
cotton back into the cloth gives the same ad¬ 
vantages, and is now being widely used in pref¬ 
erence to the backed cloth. 

MERITS OF CLOTH FOR SHOEMAKING PURPOSES 

Variety is one of the qualities desired in foot¬ 
wear style as in all other articles of wearing 
apparel. The use of cloth for shoemaking pur¬ 
poses presents a wide field of variety in weave 
construction, color and pattern effects. The 
possibilities offered are being more generally 
understood year by year with the advancement 
of the art of making cloth to meet every need 
of the trade. 

From the standpoint of cost the shoe fabric 
has its advantages in that it may be obtained 
at only a fraction of the current cost of leather. 
In servicability the best qualities of wool and 
cotton fabrics rank high with even the best 
qualities of leather, and they are much better 
than many of the leathers lower down the scale. 

SILK 

ROMANCE OF SILK CULTURE 

Like so many of the earlier contributions to 
civilization, the production of silk is to be attrib¬ 
uted to China. Just how far back the industry 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


131 

dates no one knows, although there are evi¬ 
dences that indicate its existence 5,000 years 
ago. 

There seems always to have been a certain 
fascination to the idea of commercializing the 
efforts of the busy silk worm in spinning its 
silken fibre. Practically every country at one 
time or another has had a “silk craze.” In the 
United States we have had several. California 
appeared to have ideal conditions of climate, and 
as a result we had a California silk craze in 
1861. But enthusiasm cooled off when it was 
found that the silk worm required attention. 
Later attempts have been made to establish the 
industry; the most recent being among the 
southern negroes in 1901, but none has had suc¬ 
cess. 

Today the large supplies of silk are those com¬ 
ing from China, Japan and Italy. France was a 
factor at one time but has since fallen back and 
is now of little importance. 

THE SILK FIBRE 

As the silk worm finishes its work and as the 
manufacturer takes it up, the silk is in the form 
of a very fine fibre. In appearance this is simi¬ 
lar to the fibre of a spider’s web; in fact silk 
fabric has been made from this product of the 
spider. In the cocoon, as prepared by the worm, 
there is in the average about four hundred 
yards of silk fibre in a continuous length. To 


132 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


make this available for use it is necessary that 
the fibre be unreeled. This is done by placing 
the cocoon in warm water to loosen the gum sub¬ 
stance that holds the fibres together. It is then 
possible, after the loose outside fibres have been 
removed, to fasten upon the main fibre and to 
unreel its entire length. 

The fibre as it comes from the cocoon is so 
fine and difficult to handle that it is customary 
to combine three or four of these as they are 
unreeled and to make one fibre out of them. 
To make them available for use as yarn or 
thread a further combination of the fibres is nec¬ 
essary. In a sewing thread, as used in shoes, 
for example, the number of the original fibres 
combined will run into the hundreds. 

SILK SEWING THREAD 

In its raw state the silk fibre is stronger than 
any other textile fibre of the same size. Al¬ 
though a great deal of this strength is lost in 
the manufacturing process the finished product, 
nevertheless, has remarkable tensile strength. 

The elasticity of silk is one of its principal 
points of advantage for use in sewing shoe up¬ 
pers. As previously mentioned, this is an im¬ 
portant feature and must be provided for to 
insure the best wearing service of the shoe. An¬ 
other feature in favor of silk is that it takes and 
retains dye better than any other textile. In 
silk it is possible to produce a wide variety of 


FABRICS IN THE SHOE 


133 


delicate color shades that will not easily fade. 
In addition there is, of course, the natural lustre 
which causes silk to be so generally demanded 
for certain purposes. 

Against silk is the fact of its high cost as com¬ 
pared with other threads. This narrows down 
its usage to those cases where the matter of 
price is only secondary to service, or in some 
instances to what may be nothing greater than 
the pride of possessing a thing that costs more. 

SILK SHOE FABRICS 

For use in making fancy slippers, pumps, shoe 
uppers, etc., there is a demand for plain silk and 
satin fabrics and for special embroidered and 
brocaded effects. Although a certain amount of 
wearing quality is required in these it may be 
put down almost as a general rule that it is 
appearance principally that the customer de¬ 
mands. Naturally good wearing quality will be 
expected, but the main consideration is beauty 
rather than service. The salesman’s big talk¬ 
ing point, therefore, would be on the subject of 
appearance. 


CHAPTER VII 
RUBBER AND FIBRE 

ALTERNATIVES FOR LEATHER 

The growing scarcity and increasing cost of 
leather has directed attention to the use of alter¬ 
natives and substitutes. Leather shoes with 
cloth tops and canvas shoes of various kinds 
have been in use for many years. The im¬ 
portant modern development is the substitute 
for sole leather. A number of combination soles 
are on the market. They are usually a com¬ 
pound of fibrous material and a small proportion 
of rubber. 

There has been a variety of experience with 
these substitutes. Many persons in the trade 
still cling to the old adage that “there is nothing 
like leather” while others make the most extrava¬ 
gant claims for the new soles. Experience 
shows that the truth lies somewhere between the 
two extremes. At the outset it may be accepted 
that there is nothing quite as satisfactory as 
good sole leather. Good fibre soles will have bet¬ 
ter wearing qualities than poor leather soles, but 
there are at times considerations other than fric¬ 
tional wear. 


134 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 135 

Many persons are uncomfortable if the soles 
of their shoes consist of anything but leather, 
while others do not seem to be particularly af¬ 
fected. A great deal depends upon the excre¬ 
tions from the feet. Damp feet are hot in sum¬ 
mer and cold in winter. The fibre soles do not 
permit the natural exhalations of the feet to 
escape, hence the complaints of warm feet in hot 
weather and cold feet in cold weather. It is 
generally admitted that good sole leather at a 
moderate price would drive substitutes from the 
market, but there is not enough leather to go 
around. The value of the combination sole 
is that it supplements the decreasing leather 
supply. 


RUBBER 

FIRST EFFORTS TO MAKE RUBBER FOOTWEAR 

In the making of footwear rubber has a very 
necessary part to play. Not only are boots and 
overshoes made almost entirely of it, but in the 
manufacture of leather footwear it is utilized 
for its waterproof and adhesive qualities. Also 
as a material in making soles and heels its use 
has increased by leaps and bounds during the 
last ten years. 

The history of rubber has been closely asso¬ 
ciated with that of footwear. In fact, among 
our earliest imports of rubber there were in¬ 
cluded crude types of rubber shoes made by 


136 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


the South American Indians. These they fash¬ 
ioned on moulds of clay the shape of a human 
foot, then covered them with layers of rubber, 
and finally beat out the dried clay after the rub¬ 
ber had become firm. The earlier American 
merchants sent leather boots to the Amazon, 
that the natives might coat them with the 
waterproof gum and then reship the finished 
product. Overshoes made in this way, however, 
were far from satisfactory for the reason that 
they were almost as brittle as glass in winter 
and nearly as soft and sticky as molasses in sum¬ 
mer. Years of investigation spent by Goodyear, 
the inventor, resulted in his discovery of the 
process of vulcanizing, as a result of which it 
became possible to make waterproof footwear 
that would not be affected by changes of tem¬ 
perature. 

THE RAW STATE 

Rubber is the product of a number of trees, 
shrubs and vines, nearly all of which grow in 
tropical climates. There are more than a hun¬ 
dred kinds and quantities known in commerce, 
and as many more known to scientists. These 
vary greatly in their physical properties, and 
because of this, are used for widely different pur¬ 
poses, by manufacturers. For some uses the 
particular quality required is hardness, while 
for others just the opposite; softness and resili¬ 
ency are essential. 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 


137 


In its raw state, rubber as obtained from the 
trees and vines, is in liquid form. The larger 
portion is obtained by tapping, which means that 
cuts are made through the bark of the trees; 
allowing the milky liquid to drip into cups placed 
in position to receive it. 

DRYING AND CURING 

The liquid, called latex, is collected from the 
cups, then subjected to a process to convert it 
from the liquid to the solid form. This is done 
in a variety of ways. For example, South 
American rubber from the Hevea tree is treated 
by smoking and made into large balls known as 
biscuits. A paddle is dipped into the rubber 
liquid, then held in the smoke of a fire of palm 
nuts. This dries and cures the layer of latex, 
much the same as smoke cures pork. The 
paddle is dipped for layer after layer, or the 
latex is poured over it, until a biscuit one or two 
feet in diameter is produced. This is then split 
in two to remove the paddle. 

Other methods of performing this process of 
drying and curing are also in use. The most 
scientific, however, is that used in the prepara¬ 
tion of Plantation rubber from the East Indies, 
acetic acid or some vegetable liquid containing 
a similar acid is placed with the latex in shallow 
pans. The rubber then rises to the surface in 
thin sheets, light yellow in color. These are 


138 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

dried, pressed tightly together and packed in 
cases for export. Sometimes the sheets are 
smoked before being packed. 

Brazil at one time produced nearly all the 
rubber used for manufacturing purposes; its an¬ 
nual output was between 30,000 and 40,000 tons. 
Twenty years ago Africa produced about 20,000 
tons and Asia 2,000 tons. Brazilian Hevea trees 
were introduced into the East Indies about the 
first of the present century and now the annual 
product of these plantations form the main part 
of the world’s production; the 1918 figures were 
more than 250,000 tons. Brazil still produces 
about 35,000 tons, and Africa only about a tenth 
of its maximum. 

CLEANING 

Plantation rubber does not require washing 
because the process by which it is first treated 
removes all dirt and other foreign matter. 
However, other rubbers do require to be cleaned 
in order to prepare them for use in manufactur¬ 
ing. The treatment is first to cut the rubber 
into small pieces and then to soften these in 
vats of hot water. They are then run between 
corrugated rollers which crush and tear the rub¬ 
ber while water flowing over it removes the dirt 
and grit. It is finally rolled out into thin sheets, 
which are either hung in a drying loft or placed 
in a vacuum drier. The former process requires 
several weeks, the latter only two or three hours. 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 


139 


PREPARING FOR COMMERCIAL USE 

Rubber in its pure state is of comparatively 
little service. Other substances must be mixed 
with it in order to make it serve the variety of 
purposes for which it is employed. An elastic 
band must stretch and return to its original 
shape and length. It must also be soft. An 
automobile tire must be tough and firm whereas 
a comb must be stiff and hard, in order to serve 
its purpose. 

One very important treatment is that of vul¬ 
canizing. This results in the changing of rubber 
into a practically new material. It is accom¬ 
plished by mixing sulphur with the crude rubber 
and submitting it, under pressure, to the action 
of heat. Other treatments are also given to pro¬ 
duce special qualities such as strength, resilience 
and resistance against the action of water, oil 
and air. The necessary substances are thor¬ 
oughly mixed or compounded with the rubber 
after it has been made soft, like dough, by pass¬ 
ing it between steam heated rollers. Finally it 
is run into long sheets and is ready for use. Up 
to this point the process of preparing rubber is 
much the same regardless of the kind of article 
to be made from it. The manufacture of rub¬ 
ber boots and overshoes will be treated in a 
later section of the Course. Here we are mainly 
interested in rubber as one of the materials in 
shoes. 


140 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


RUBBER HEELS 

During the past few years rubber heels have 
come into very general use, mainly because they 
serve to prevent the excessive nerve jar caused 
in walking by the continual impact of the leather 
heel on the hard city pavements. Another ad¬ 
vantage is that they permit of noiseless walking. 
It is claimed that over 75,000,000 pairs of rub¬ 
ber heels were made and worn in the United 
States in 1918. 

For this purpose the rubber must have a rea¬ 
sonable amount of resiliency and sufficient 
toughness to resist undue wear. The heel must 
have some means of fastening to the shoe with¬ 
out in any way interfering with the resiliency. 
It is clear that the method of fastening a 
leather heel would not do for a rubber one, for 
the reason that the nails at the surface would be 
both hard and noisy. The usual method is to 
imbed in the rubber heel metal washers or plates 
through which nails are driven into the heel-seat 
of the shoe. The heads of the nails are thus 
held by the washers well beyond the wearing 
surface of the heel. 

MAKING THE HEEL 

Up to the point of preparing the rubber in 
sheets the process is the same in making rubber 
heels as it is for any other purpose. However, 
these sheets as at first prepared are required to 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 141 

be further rolled into sheets one-half the thick¬ 
ness of the intended heel. Dies the shape of the 
heel then cut pieces from these sheets. Wash¬ 
ers or plates are placed in position upon one heel 
piece and a second piece is placed on top, thus 
making a heel of the required thickness with the 
washers in-between. They are then placed in 
steam heated metal moulds which may be en¬ 
graved to form a design upon the finished heel. 
Several such moulds, each containing a number 
of heels, are placed under heavy pressure, steam 
is turned on and the rubber is thus vulcanized. 
Any excess of rubber which may be forced out 
by the pressure is trimmed off with scissors, af¬ 
ter which the heels are ready for the market. 

MEANS TO PREVENT SLIPPING 

One great defect of rubber heels has been 
their tendency to slip upon smooth, wet surfaces. 
This difficulty is being overcome in various ways 
by different manufacturers. One way is to form 
cavities in the tread of the heel so that in walk¬ 
ing a vacuum is produced by the pressure on 
the heel. The size, shape and number of such 
cavities varies with the different makes of heels. 
Other makers insert plugs of different shapes and 
sizes. These are made by coating cotton duck 
with rubber and rolling spirally. These rolls 
are cut into thin slices or discs and inserted in 
the tread surface. In action the canvas absorbs 
the moisture and swells a little, sufficient to hold 


142 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


the heel firmly to the ground and thus to pre¬ 
vent skidding. 

In shoe making rubber also has an important 
use as one of the materials in cement. How¬ 
ever, this will be treated in a following chapter 
under the heading of cement. 


FIBRE 


SOLES 

Soles of rubber are used to some extent but 
by far the larger proportion of those used as 
substitutes for leather are made of rubber and 
fibre. The principle is the same as that of the 
rubber heel with a combination of cotton fibre, 
as already described. The sole has the anti¬ 
slip quality of the mixed rubber and fibre, al¬ 
though, as used for this purpose, fibre is added 
principally to increase durability. 

HOW THE SOLE IS MADE 

The term “fibre” as used here includes a vari¬ 
ety of different materials. Leather scraps are 
torn in shreds and then compressed in combi¬ 
nation with a rubber compound and vulcanized. 
It may be prepared in sheet form from which the 
soles are afterwards cut out in the required 
shapes and sizes, or the sole may be vulcanized 
in a mould after it has been cut. In the com¬ 
bination sole the fibre holds the rubber, gives 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 


143 


a tougher surface, prevent cracking and because 
of its absorptive powers, prevents slipping. 

Cotton fibre ground from rags or waste thread 
or fabric is used for the same purpose. Wool 
fibre and waste wool is loosely felted and thor¬ 
oughly mixed with rubber and similarly used. 
The cuttings from coated fabrics used in tire 
and footwear manufacture are ground and 
mixed together and form the material for some 
makes of combination soles. Reclaimed or re¬ 
generated rubber is said by a noted chemist to 
be particularly valuable for this purpose. He 
states that the use of such rubber in a compound 
increases its serviceability. 

Cork, ground to a coarse powder, has been 
used with fairly satisfactory results as a filler 
for non-slip soles. The ginned cotton seed re¬ 
tains a fibre that has been utilized for this pur¬ 
pose. Some mineral substances have been tried, 
but with the possible exception of asbestos, 
have been found impracticable. Cotton, wool 
and leather are all good. The longer the natural 
fibre the better it can be felted and the more suc¬ 
cessfully the soles can be stitched without split¬ 
ting; also the better are their wearing qualities. 

TESTING 

Fibre soles have in many cases proven more 
durable than even good quality leather soles. 
They are not today considered merely as eco¬ 
nomical substitutes, though they could be fur- 


144 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


nished on the basis of 1919 market prices, at 
much lower cost than good leather. A fibre sole 
should be flexible and not too heavy. A test for 
quality is to fold it upon itself and to press the 
fold sharply. Under this treatment it should 
show no signs of cracking and should quickly re¬ 
turn to its original shape. A more thorough and 
severe test is that of cutting a slit part-way 
through with a sharp knife and then to press the 
cut open by bending. A good sole should show 
no tendency to extend the cut made in this way. 

FIBRE COUNTERS 

As with so many other shoe parts, counters 
originally were made almost always of leather. 
Within recent years, due largely to the great in¬ 
crease in the cost of leather, there has been a con¬ 
tinually greater use for this purpose of fibre and 
leather hoard. The latter is an imitation of 
leather made from scraps of leather pasted and 
pressed together into sheets. At the present 
time the largest percentage of counters used are 
those made of fibre; mainly from hemp fibres. 
Some also are made of indurated fibre, which is 
a paper pulp saturated with a metallic chloride, 
and moulded to shape. 

HEMP FIBRE 

Hemp being the longest and strongest of all 
vegetable fibres is particularly well suited for 
the making of counters. The largest quantities 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 


145 


of hemp are grown in Russia, which, under nor¬ 
mal conditions, produced more than a billion 
pounds annually. This quantity is about two- 
thirds of the world’s yearly crop. The Philip¬ 
pine Islands and certain of the United States 
also contribute in smaller quantities. 

After the hemp is cut the first process of treat¬ 
ment is that of rotting it. This is a process 
much like that of rotting flax; the object being 
to rot out the gum substances and hold together 
the plant filaments and thus to loosen the hemp 
fibres. It is in this form that hemp is received 
for manufacturing purposes. 

HEMP COUNTERS 

The preliminary stages of preparing the hemp 
for use need not be reviewed at length. In the 
usual order there are the processes of separating 
the fibres and freeing them of outside matter 
as already described in referring to cotton fibre. 
The final treatment before moulding is that of 
preparing the hemp in sheet form. These are 
passed through large machines that mould the 
counter, under great pressure, into the required 
shapes. It is then made ready for use as part 
of the shoe. 

There are many features essential to the mak¬ 
ing of a good counter. One of the most im¬ 
portant is that it should have a wide scarf. The 
scarf is the beveled edge at the top of the coun¬ 
ter and its purpose is to provide the required 


146 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


thickness in different portions so as to make the 
counter conform easily to the shape of the shoe 
and thus to prevent wrinkles on the outside 
leather. 

If the counter is not beveled down to a very 
thin edge the line of the counter will show 
through on the outside of the shoe. This is 
particularly true in the case of fancy shoes. 
Another important feature is that the counter 
should be flexible at the upper part and rigid at 
the lower part. Between the two extremes there 
should be varying grades of flexibility; increas¬ 
ing toward the upper part of the counter. This 
helps toward conforming it to the shape of the 
shoe and is especially necessary in the cheaper 
grades of poorly tanned colored leather, where 
an imperfect fitting would so readily show 
through the shoe. 

Still another feature is that the counter should 
have a rigid back at the heel seam in order to 
hold its shape. It should be carefully fitted so 
that it will conform to the last and the lower 
portion should be uniform in strength around 
the entire heel seat. 

In addition to the matter of lower cost there 
are some advantages of the fibre counter over 
those made of leather. The former has not 
increased in cost in proportion to the cost of 
leather. It is not affected by moisture from the 
foot nor by outside moisture. It is very resilient 
and thus permanently retains its shape. It is 


RUBBER AND FIBRE 


147 


also much more uniform in quality than leather, 
even of the best grades, and vastly more uniform 
than the cheap grades, such as those used in 
making counters. 


CHAPTER VIII 

OTHER RAW MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 
WOOD 


THE SHANK 

Although wood in various forms is used in 
shoes, its greatest use by far is in the making 
of the last to form or mould the shoe in manu¬ 
facturing. In the finished shoe, wood is found 
very generally in what is known as the shank. 
This is a reinforcement used to stiffen the sole 
at the arch between the heel and the ball of the 
foot. This support may be either wood or 
steel, or it may be wood reinforced by steel. 
Michigan maple of the best quality is commonly 
used, although any hard wood of sufficient 
strength and elasticity will serve the purpose. 

WOODEN HEELS 

Heels are quite often made of wood and cov¬ 
ered with leather. This is particularly true in 
the case of high heels and spool heels for wo¬ 
men’s shoes. This wood also is oftentimes of 
maple but still other selected varieties find gen¬ 
eral usage. The blocks are worked up into the 

148 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 149 


desired shapes and sizes by automatic machinery 
in much the same way that lasts are made. It 
is evident, of course, that wood is cheaper than 
leather; it is also somewhat lighter, but the sue- 
cessful making and attaching of wood heels re¬ 
quires a higher grade of skillful workmanship 
than that required for the same class of work 
on leather heels. 

WOODEN SOLES 

In certain kinds of work, such as that in brew¬ 
eries, powder mills, at soda fountains, and the 
like, wooden soles are used quite extensively. 
They are also used much more generally in for¬ 
eign countries, particularly in Holland and Ger¬ 
many, where a large percentage of the peasants 
wear cheap brogan shoes with wooden soles. 
This wood for soles is a selected grade of hard 
wood. The soles are cut and shaped by an auto¬ 
matic machine process. An interesting point 
to note in this connection is that in order to 
prevent flat foot, wooden soles are made with 
rocker bottoms so that the wearer can rock on 
the bottom and get a motion similar to that made 
in ordinary walking with flexible leather sole 
shoes. 

PEGS AND PEG WOOD 

In shoemaking the peg serves the same gen¬ 
eral purpose as the steel shoe nail; namely, as 
a means of attaching the shoe sole and heel and 


ISO 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


also to a limited extent, as a means to prolong 
the life of the leather. Individual pegs are little 
used at the present time, except by occasional 
country cobblers, and then only for making 
heavy work shoes. Peg wood, however, is con¬ 
siderably used in connection with the Davy peg¬ 
ging machine, which is an automatic means for 
cutting and driving the peg. 

CUTTING AND FINISHING THE WOOD 

The wood for pegs must be of the best quality 
of beech wood. Companies manufacturing pegs 
send men through their forests to select those 
trees that are practically free from knots and 
other irregularities in the grain of the wood. 

In making peg wood the logs are sawed into 
sections or layers about an inch thick so that 
from these the peg of the proper length may be 
cut. Then a revolving saw, working around the 
block, cuts it into what is really a ribbon or coil 
of peg wood. One end of this coil is sharpened 
to a point such as is required in the finished peg. 
These coils can be fitted into the Davy pegging 
machine which cuts off each peg as it is 
driven into a shoe. Peg wood, of course, is pro¬ 
vided in various lengths and thicknesses so as 
to furnish pegs of various sizes. A No. 8 
peg wood, for instance, is one of which eight 
pegs, set side by side, would extend an inch. 
Similarly, Nos. io, 12, 14 and 16 peg woods 
are graded. In coarse shoes generally Nos. 8 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 151 

and 10 peg wood is used. In fine shoes it is 
more common to use a No. 12 or 14 peg. 

USE IN SPECIAL KINDS OF WORK 

One of the uses of peg wood is in heavy work 
shoes. Whenever a shoe is used in places where 
nails would be dangerous, because of the attrac¬ 
tion of electricity, as, for instance, in a powder 
factory, pegged shoes are required. Logging 
boots are frequently made with an extra sole or 
tap which is pegged on. In army work also, 
the engineering corps uses a shoe with a similar 
tap pegged on. 

Within the last few years pegs have been 
used some in attaching the top lift of the heel. 
In the first instance this was simply a novelty, 
some people thinking it was more decorative 
than the shoe with the top lift of the heel fas¬ 
tened on with wire nails. But it does offer cer¬ 
tain advantages. 

Pegged shoes which were extensively worn in 
the last century have now nearly disappeared, 
except for special needs; they were never so 
small a factor as now. Wooden shoe pegs were 
originally calendared and compressed to prevent 
swelling by moisture after being driven. The 
pegging machine, to drive wooden pegs, was one 
of the earliest machines used in shoemaking at 
the beginning of the present era of machine- 
made shoes, covering a period of successive de¬ 
velopment and improvement of about seventy 


152 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


years. The pegged shoe had its day and passed 
on before economic laws. 


IRON AND STEEL 


THE SHANK 

A common use of iron and steel is in connec¬ 
tion with the making of the shank. As pre¬ 
viously mentioned, the shank is frequently of 
either wood or steel, or a combination of the two. 
Steel is really the better material for this pur¬ 
pose. It has more flexibility and is thus able to 
conform more readily to the walking motion. 
It yields with the arch when the weight of the 
body is placed upon it, but after the pressure is 
removed it again springs back into the original 
shape. Arch supports are made in varying 
lengths, widths, and shapes. Some are made 
to hold up or support a broken arch as well 
as to give it the desired flexibility for correct 
walking. Others are provided for those cases 
where only a simple brace is required. These 
are generally narrower in design and are at¬ 
tached to the wood and leather-board before 
being placed in position as part of the shoe. 

Among other iron and steel products used in 
shoes there are nails and standard screws, lacing 
hooks, heel and sole rims and plates, also hob 
nails and a great variety of other small plates 
that are either fastened on by nails or screwed 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 153 

to the sole and heel to prevent wearing and to 
conserve leather. 

MANUFACTURE OF SHOE NAILS 

Nails for shoemaking are made from what is 
known as tack plate. In the steel trade a sheet 
of steel more than a quarter of an inch thick is 
called plate and it is from such sheets as these, 
rolled especially for the making of tacks, that 
shoemaking tacks are manufactured. The main 
requirement is that the steel shall have a small 
amount of carbon, say, 12/100 to 20/100 of 
one per cent so that the tacks will be soft 
enough to withstand pounding without breaking 
and at the same time hard enough to drive 
through the leather without buckling. 

The tacks are cut from this tack plate very 
rapidly and in large quantities by means of auto¬ 
matic machinery. Machines for this purpose 
have been improved to a high point of per¬ 
fection. The plate is cut into strips prepared 
for the purpose by ridding the surface of hard¬ 
ening. It is then put in process in an automatic 
machine which forms the nails or tacks. 

VARIETY OF USES 

In a welt shoe tacks are used in three places, 
first for tacking the innersole to the upper; sec¬ 
ond, for attaching the heel and third for attach¬ 
ing the top lift to the heel. A welt shoe is one 
in the manufacture of which the machines prin- 


154 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


cipally used are those of the “Goodyear” patent; 
named after the inventor of the process. The 
product is known as a Goodyear welt shoe. 
This process will be described fully in the sec¬ 
tion of the Course on Shoemaking. 

It is desirable that these nails, commonly 
called slugs should be rather soft so that they 
will wear down with the leather rather than 
to protrude above the level of the heel in such 
a way as to cause damage to floors, and also 
to increase the possibility of slipping when walk¬ 
ing on hard, smooth surfaces. 

In the McKay process, which is another 
method of shoemaking named after the inventor, 
the nails are used to attach the innersole to the 
upper and lining. These are left in the shoe af¬ 
ter it is completed. The nails are cut from the 
same kind of tack plate as are those used in the 
Goodyear process. 

For heavy work shoes and for army shoes hob 
nails are required. The main purpose of these 
is to prolong the wearing life of the shoe. They 
are also serviceable to prevent slipping in soft 
substances underfoot, such as muddy ground, 
etc. Hob nails also are cut from tack plate 
but of a higher carbon content so that the nail 
is a much harder one than that used for ordinary 
purposes. It is, of course, desirable in this case 
that the nails should not wear away. 

Various other types of nails and tacks are used 
in shoemaking for special purposes but in general 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 155 

the processes of making are the same as those al¬ 
ready described; the different purposes for 
which they are used determining the hardness 
of the tack plate required. 

PAPER 

SHANKS, INNERSOLES, LIFTS, ETC. 

The use of paper in its ordinary form is of but 
little importance in the manufacture of shoes. 
However, for indoor shoes, where the matter of 
wearing qualities is not the primary considera¬ 
tion, paper is used to some extent. In the mak¬ 
ing of the innersole it is of some considerable 
use; sometimes reinforced by sheep skin or by 
thin pieces of other leather. Compressed paper 
in the form of a thin board and various other 
composition boards in which some paper may be 
found, are used quite extensively in the shanks 
of shoes. They also find use to form the middle 
lifts, or layers of leathers, in the heels of cheap 
shoes. In both of these places paper board is 
considered satisfactory because it will give good 
wear as long as the rest of the shoe lasts. At 
the same time it makes possible the selling of the 
shoe at a lower price and the conserving of 
leather for other parts of the shoe for which it 
is more necessary. 

Paper covers are used as a protection to white 
shoes and some fancy leathers and fabrics while 
in process of manufacture, to prevent soiling or 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


iS6 

other injury. Specially prepared paper is em¬ 
ployed for this purpose; a strong waterproof 
paper of Japanese production being very good. 


CORK 


INSOLE AND FILLER 

Due to the fact that it is practically water¬ 
proof, cork finds use in a variety of forms in 
shoemaking. It is used frequently in the form 
of sheet cork of a thickness varying from 1/16 
to 3/16 of an inch and is applied between the 
outside and innersole as a means to make the 
shoe waterproof. It is also used as a filler in 
certain kinds of shoes. This filler is a combina¬ 
tion of cork shavings and pitch and is used 
to fill in the space left when the upper leather 
is lapped over at the sole. By the use of 
this filling a level and solid surface is pro¬ 
vided for the sole. Cork is the lightest sub¬ 
stance obtainable for this purpose. It is also 
easily applied and makes a soft substance under 
the foot. This combination of cork and pitch 
serves to give flexibility and at the same time 
prevents the possibility of squeaking. Because 
of its waterproof qualities, cork is very service¬ 
able in the case of light weight shoes. If 
it were not for this filling the dampness of the 
wet street would work through the light sole and 
thus subject the foot to moisture. 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 157 



Figure A- 



Figure C. 


Figure/). 



Figure A. Illustrates the use of cork filler and its position in 
the shoe. 

Figure B. Illustrates the shoe with a portion of the upper leather 
cut away to show the Counter. 

Figure C. Shows the innersole on the last before the upper 
leather is attached. 

Figure D. Illustrates the shoe with a portion of the upper leather 
cut away to show the Box Toe. 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


158 


ARTIFICIAL LEATHER 

ESSENTIALLY A VEGETABLE PRODUCT 

Artificial leather is made principally of vege¬ 
table products. The process is one of apply¬ 
ing a coat of enamel on a heavy cotton drill or 
sheeting. The coating is mainly of linseed 
oil mixed with turpentine and certain solid sub¬ 
stances. Lampblack is also used to give the 
required color. 

The Du Pont company has a brand known 
as “Fabrikoid” which is developed really as a 
by-product of the company’s ordinary manufac¬ 
turing operations. The material from which 
this is made is a cellulose substance and comes 
as a by-product in connection with the making 
of explosives. Within recent years the quality 
of artificial leather in general has been much im¬ 
proved so that it will now retain the appearance 
of leather. This is a necessary qualification for 
the use it has had in certain parts of the moder¬ 
ate priced shoe. The fact is, however, that in 
the past artificial leathers have failed when sub¬ 
jected to constant bending. On the other hand 
the present artificial products are a great step 
forward in the ages-old endeavor to provide a 
substitute for the natural article. 

USE IN THE SHOE 

It is used with fairly good results as material 
for the shoe tongue, which is the strip extend- 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 159 

ing beneath the lacing. It is also satisfactory 
for making quarters; a part of the shoe upper 
extending vertically along the back to reinforce 
the heel. 

Success has been had in using artificial leather 
as material for making the uppers of dancing 
slippers; particularly in silver and gold. With 
the increasing price of leather and of cotton and 
woolen fabrics, it is likely that the use of arti¬ 
ficial leather will increase. This will be true 
particularly as the quality of the product con¬ 
tinues to improve. 


COMBINATIONS OF RAW MATERIALS 
INNERSOLES 

USE OF COMPOSITIONS 

Innersoles are made of various materials, the 
most common of which is leather. It is un¬ 
doubtedly true that leather makes the best 
innersole for the same reason that it makes the 
best outersole. But it is also quite true that in 
cheaper grades of shoes a satisfactory innersole 
can be made of fibre or cork or of various com¬ 
position materials. There are also a number 
of advantages to these other innersoles. They 
are, for instance, more uniform in strength and 
substance so as to prevent any variation in last- 


160 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

ing or welting and they insure a smooth inside. 
Many of these substitutes for leather in inner- 
soles have long wearing qualities and will not 
crack, break, shrink, pull, swell or tear. 

POINTS OF ADVANTAGE 

It is not necessary to sort these because they 
are entirely uniform and therefore they add 
much to the fit and evenness. For instance, 
it is frequently easier to get a better looking 
forepart because of this uniformity. Perfect 
measurements are easier to obtain because of 
uniformity of the foundation. The inseam can 
be tighter and there is no danger of cutting the 
sole stitching on the outersole. Many of these 
composition innersoles are waterproof and in 
addition will stand hard usage very well. 

One of the great advantages is the saving that 
results. This frequently amounts to as much 
as five to ten cents a pair. The disadvantage 
of the composition innersole is that when the 
outersole is worn through, the composition pro¬ 
duced will give way much more rapidly than 
leather and before the wearer realizes it the shoe 
may be beyond repair, except by the addition of 
a new innersole and a new welt. This would be 
so expensive a process before resoling as to 
make it out of the question. Generally if the 
innersole gives way the customer might as well 
buy a new pair of shoes. 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 161 


BOX TOES 

MAINLY FELT OR CANVAS 

The ready-prepared box toe has come into 
general acceptance only within the past few 
years. Formerly they were made of sole leather. 
However, with the necessity to reduce the use 
of leather to only the most essential require¬ 
ments, because of the limited supply, and with 
the need of scaling down the price of moderate 
priced shoes, various substitutes have been intro¬ 
duced. The most of them are just as satisfac¬ 
tory as the solid leather box toe. Those made 
of good canvas or felt meet practically every 
requirement. They are produced by first cut¬ 
ting out the felt or canvas in the shape of a 
half-moon. Then the material is treated to a 
stiffening process until it is firm enough to 
mould over the toe of the last. Finally it is 
coated with glue or some other stiffening material 
which renders it firm and hard as well as prac¬ 
tically waterproof. 

Some factories make their own box toes of 
canvas coated with shellac and box-toe gum and 
these are said to render average good service. 

CEMENT 


WHAT IT IS 

Cement as used in shoemaking is essentially 
a combination of rubber and gasolene. It is 


162 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


in reality simply gasolene thickened with rubber. 
Rubber cement should contain at least the pro¬ 
portion of half a pound of rubber to a gallon of 
gasolene, with a mixture of such amounts of 
rosin or similar materials as may be required for 
the different purposes for which the cement is 
to be used. 

Rubber cement is used in making a shoe be¬ 
cause it is the only substance that will adhere 
permanently to wet leather. It is employed, 
where possible, to avoid using tacks. Paste or 
glue could be used if the leather were never sub¬ 
jected to the moisture. 

The grades of rubber that are used to make 
this product are the Brazilian Para and Ceylon 
rubbers. The difference in the various qualities 
of cement results from the difference in the 
quality of rubber and gasolene used in their 
manufacture and the judgment used in combin¬ 
ing them with rosin and other necessary ingre¬ 
dients. 

CHANNEL CEMENT 

In most processes of attaching the sole a chan¬ 
nel is required to be cut in the sole. The chan¬ 
nel is a slanting cut made around the edge of a 
sole or insole where the stitching is to be done. 
The flap thus formed is then folded back and 
after the sewing is completed it is again cemented 
down in the original position. If the channel 
cement is not of good quality it will not hold 


OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 163 

down the channel flap. The result is that the 
flap along the edge of the shoe turns up; expos¬ 
ing the stitching and detracting from the appear¬ 
ance of the shoe. Even though a cheap cement 
should hold until the shoe is sold there is the 
likelihood that the action of walking will cause 
the cement to break after a short time. The 
channel will then open up and make an unsightly 
edge to the sole. On the other hand, if the 
cement is of good quality it will not break and 
the channel will not open up as a result of 
usage in wearing. 

SOLE-LAYING CEMENT 

A second type of cement is that used in sole 
laying. In shoes made according to the Good¬ 
year welt method, this sole laying cement is ap¬ 
plied to the sole after the bottom of the shoe 
has been filled with a mixture called a “filler” 
as previously described under the subject of 
cork. The upper side of the sole, which is 
next to the innersole, is covered with a coating 
of this cement and the outersole is then made 
fast to the innersole. The advantage of this 
cement is twofold. It not only helps to hold 
the shoe in shape during the process of manu¬ 
facture but it also adds to the wearing quality 
of the shoe. A good grade of sole laying 
cement will prevent the sole of a wet shoe 
from shrinking. Sometimes, when the sole lay¬ 
ing cement does not hold, the edge of the sole 


164 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 



OUTLINE TO SHOW PORTIONS OF A SHOE 
WHERE RUBBER CEMENT IS USED 



OTHER MATERIALS AND THEIR USES 165 

breaks away from the upper portion of the shoe 
and thus leaves an imperfect edge. In double 
soles, if the cement is not of good quality, so as 
to make a perfect union between the inner and 
outer sole, there is likelihood of friction and 
a consequent squeak in the shoe. 

STITCHING ROOM CEMENT 

The purpose of cement used in the stitching 
room is to hold the edges of the leather firmly 
and evenly while the stitching is being done. 
In this respect it serves the same purpose as bast¬ 
ing does in the case of dressmaking. Cement is 
also used to attach the lining of the shoe to 
the outside leather. The lining and the leather 
are both coated with cement and then pressed 
together at the time of stitching. 

LEATHER CEMENT 

In the cement business all cements used in 
shoe factories are called rubber cements. So- 
called leather cement is a mixture of gutta per- 
cha and bisulphate of carbon. This is only used 
in shoe repairing as, for example, to paste on a 
piece of upper leather in making a patch. 


CHAPTER IX 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 
SHOE BUTTONS 

THE PAPER BUTTON 

Shoe buttons are commonly made of paper. 
Until recently ornamental buttons of celluloid 
or bone were thought necessary but manufac¬ 
turers of paper buttons have succeeded in imitat¬ 
ing them so well and in obtaining such a good 
finish that the paper button is now used almost 
exclusively for shoe purposes. It is, of course, 
much cheaper than the bone or celluloid button. 
Furthermore, it seems to work better in button- 
attaching machines and thus can be more 
cheaply and quickly attached than other but¬ 
tons. This is probably due to the fact that it 
is moulded rather than cut, and therefore more 
uniform in shape and size. 

THE MAKING PROCESS 

The paper pulp for the button is run through 
a machine which by means of steel dies cuts out 
the rough button. This is then pressed into shape 
and at the same time the eye of the button is 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 167 

driven in and clinched. The buttons are then 
saturated with oil and baked or oxidized so as 
to make them very hard. This baking process is 
repeated two or three times until the desired 
firmness is obtained. The buttons are then 
enameled. The enamel is applied and baked on, 
one coat after another, until an enameled sur¬ 
face of the desired quality is obtained. Each 
coat of enamel requires baking until it is thor¬ 
oughly hardened. 

Finally the buttons are tested for the strength 
of the eyelet. In a good button it is required 
that the eyelet shall stand a “pull” or tensile 
strength of sixty pounds or more. 

Various special shapes and sizes of buttons are 
made. In one design that has been put upon 
the market recently, the under part of the button 
rolls from the eye outward, thus making the bot¬ 
tom more nearly in the shape of a sphere. 
When this button is attached to the shoe it serves 
to relieve the strain on the button hole and re¬ 
duces the possibility of breaking it when the shoe 
is unbuttoned carelessly. 

EYELETS 

TWO STYLES OF EYELETS 

In general there are two main classes of eye¬ 
lets; visible and invisible. As the name indi¬ 
cates, visible eyelets are those that show on the 
outside of the shoe. The invisible, or blind 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


168 

eyelets, are those that are fastened in the shoe 
between the facing and the lining so that no 
part of the metallic eyelet is visible on the out¬ 
side of the shoe. 

Most shoes are fitted with the visible type. 
The invisible eyelet is not so durable nor so easy 
to apply. Its use is for the purpose of adding 
to the attractiveness of a high grade shoe. In¬ 
visible eyelets should never be used in the case 
of the cheaper grades of leather or fabric shoes 
for the reason that the cheaper leather or fabric 
is likely to fray out because it does not have the 
extra reinforcing that the outside eyelet pro¬ 
vides. 

VISIBLE EYELETS —FAST COLOR 

The best grade of visible eyelets and the kind 
that is today very generally used in the best and 
medium grade shoes for men and women is that 
known as fast color. It is provided with a top 
of a solid-color material so that it cannot turn 
brassy in wear, as do eyelets made by the ordi¬ 
nary enamel process. 

In manufacturing this particular kind of eye¬ 
let, the barrel, or that part which is set or pressed 
against the leather of the shoe to hold the eyelet 
in place is made of brass and has a small flange 
turned at one end to form the top of the eyelet. 
This metal is then nickel plated in order that 
there may be no corrosion of the eyelet when 
subjected to the moisture of the foot. 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 169 

The top, which is the part that shows on the 
surface when placed in the shoe, is made of 
celluloid which is moulded around the flange of 
the barrel so that it is held very securely in place. 
The celluloid is supplied in black, white and the 
variety of colors required by the shoe trade. 

When fast color eyelets were first introduced 
they immediately* became popular, and shoe 
dealers were able promptly to distinguish them 
from the ordinary enamel eyelet, by the nickeled 
barrel which showed on the inside of the shoe 
after the eyelet had been set in place. How¬ 
ever, an ingenious manufacturer of eyelets found 
a way by which he could nickel-plate eyelets of 
his own making so that they imitated the appear¬ 
ance of the genuine article. Just that portion 
of the top which showed on the surface of the 
shoe upper was enameled, and thus was secured 
an imitation of the fast color eyelet, which was 
impossible to distinguish after the eyelet had 
been placed in the shoe. 

While there was considerable confusion in 
the trade for a time, the manufacturers of fast 
color eyelets promptly met the situation by hav¬ 
ing a small, diamond-shaped trade mark slightly 
raised on the top of each eyelet made by them. 
This new distinguishing feature and the reason 
for it were widely advertised not only to the 
retail dealers in shoes, but to the wearers as 
well, and the possibility of further substitution 
was thus prevented. 


170 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


ENAMEL EYELETS 

The enamel eyelet is a type of the visible 
variety. As may be inferred from the name, it 
is covered with a coating of enamel over the 
metallic background. Enamel eyelets are made 
in various qualities which depend upon the num¬ 
ber of enamel coats given them in the making. 
The cheaper grades have only two or three 
coats, while the better grades have as many as 
eight or ten coats. Enamel eyelets cannot be 
considered absolutely fast for the reason that 
it is possible, with continuous use, to wear 
through the enamel and thus to expose the brass. 
However, they are generally considered suitable 
for medium and low priced shoes because a good 
grade of enamel ought not to wear through to 
the brass within the lifetime of the shoe. In¬ 
deed, a good grade of enamel eyelets should wear 
considerably longer than the shoe itself. 

JAPANNED EYELETS 

This is the cheapest grade of the visible eye¬ 
lets and is suitable only for use in cheap shoes. 
The eyelets are stamped out of brass or other 
metal and are then dumped into a can and cov¬ 
ered with one coat of ordinary japan, which is 
a hard, black varnish. Such an eyelet will 
stand very little wear; in fact, it is quite com¬ 
mon for the japanning to break off before the 
shoe is sold. 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 171 


INVISIBLE EYELETS 

As these are not visible it is not necessary that 
they be made fast color. It is only necessary 
that they be of a sufficiently good quality of 
metal and of workmanship to prevent their pull¬ 
ing out or slipping after they are inserted in 
the shoe. 


LACING HOOKS 

BRASS AND STEEL HOOKS 

The purpose of the lacing hook, of course, is 
to supply a convenient means of lacing the shoe; 
thus taking the place of the eyelet or button. 
They are made of either brass or steel. Brass 
hooks are used in bathing shoes and in such other 
types as are likely to be subjected to water. 
The reason for this is that the brass will not rust. 
Steel hooks are made of special steel that will 
stand drawing out into tubes and will, at the 
same time, stand the strain of shoe lacing with¬ 
out bending. For that reason great care has 
to be used in the making of steel for lacing 
hooks in order to get these two qualities into 
the same metal. As is the case with eyelets, 
lacing hooks are divided into three classes. 

FAST COLOR LACING HOOKS 

In high grade shoes and even in those of 
medium quality the top of the lacing hook which 
is visible from the outside of the shoe, should 


172 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


be fast color. It is made so by adding a cover 
of celluloid in just the same way that fast-color 
eyelets are made. 

ENAMELED LACING HOOKS 

These are made by adding from two or three 
to eight or ten coats of enamel to the top of the 
hook (depending upon the quality of the hook 
desired) and thoroughly baking it on. Under 
ordinary circumstances, the enameled hook will 
last longer than the shoe. It is not, however, 
absolutely fast color as it is possible for the 
enamel to wear through in the case of a shoe 
that has had long usage. 

JAPANNED HOOKS 

The japanned hook is found only in the 
cheaper grades of shoes. It is made by adding 
about five or six coats of japanning. This, 
however, is likely to wear through before the 
shoe is worn out. In some grades of heavy 
working shoes, a hook that is plated with nickel 
or brass is used instead of one that has merely 
been japanned. As a rule, a plated hook will 
wear longer than a japanned hook, but even this 
will generally not wear as long as the shoe. 

SHOE DRESSINGS OR CLEANING AGENTS 

NEED OF THE DRESSING 

The purpose of the shoe dressing is to fur¬ 
nish an attractive appearance to the shoe that 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 173 

has become mussed up as a result of handling 
during the process of making. After the vari¬ 
ous operations of manufacture have been com¬ 
pleted it is necessary to go over the shoe and 
restore its finish wherever it may be found to 
require it. 

In order to make up dressings for the differ¬ 
ent types of shoes it is necessary to know first 
of all how the leather was dressed originally. 
For instance, a shoe made of snuffed calf skin 
would require an entirely different kind of dress¬ 
ing because the finish of the leather in the first 
place was different from that of the ordinary 
calf skin. Therefore, manufacturers are called 
upon to make up a great variety of dressings, 
for the reason that the work of dressing the 
shoe is practically one of re-tanning and re-finish¬ 
ing, as well as one of cleaning. The process 
is that of going back to the first step in tan¬ 
ning, and the result of good work in dressing 
the shoe is to restore the leather through this 
re-finishing to its original condition. 

EXTENT OF RE-FINISHING 

If in any place the defacing is more than a 
simple dulling of the leather it will be necessary 
to go back more than one step in the finishing 
of the leather according to the condition in which 
it may be in the particular case. In some 
instances it may be necessary to go through 
every process of tanning. However, only one 


174 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


step generally is necessary and this is the 
equivalent of the last step in finishing the 
leather. This is simply a matter of adding a 
new lustre, and there is an advantage in this 
work in that it also improves and preserves the 
leather. 

Sometimes the leather shows only a dullness 
that requires simply rubbing with a dry rag. 
This dullness, by the way, is likely to appear 
again after the shoes are on the retailer’s shelves. 
It is therefore a good plan for every salesman 
to have handy a small polishing cloth with which 
to rub up the shoe before he presents it to the 
customer. The matter of a polish on the shoe 
is small but it will oftentimes have a very de¬ 
cided influence upon the customer. 

DRESSINGS FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF LEATHER 

A snuffed leather that has been ruffled up will 
require that a filler be used. These fillers are 
made of a variety of substances, depending upon 
the needs of each case. After the filler, a sur¬ 
face dressing must be applied. 

Box calf and other glazed leathers require a 
dressing that will give results without rubbing. 
Some form of a shellac dressing, so made that 
it will not injure the shoe, is used for this pur¬ 
pose. Generally the shellac is combined with an 
alkali in order to stimulate the action upon the 
leather. This combination is then applied af¬ 
ter the filler has been allowed to dry. 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 175 

With white canvas shoes it is first necessary to 
clean off the surface dirt with a rubber eraser. 
Then a canvas dressing, composed of a body of 
white chalk and a gum, such as benzoin, is ap¬ 
plied. This dressing must be very carefully 
applied so as not to clog the mesh of the canvas. 
To prevent this clogging the dressing should not 
contain too heavy a mixing of chalk. 

Various kinds of colored shoes, such as tans, 
require special dressings that are particularly 
difficult to prepare and use. Gray shoes, for 
instance, have a tendency to fade and to change 
color after they have been made up, and in spite 
of the best tanning it is difficult to restore the 
finish. 

RE-DYEING 

Sometimes it is thought desirable to attempt 
to re-dye leathers and, in fact, whole shoes. But 
manufacturers and retailers alike have found 
that no dyes have yet been developed that will 
give entirely satisfactory results, except black. 
It is much better to use the leather or the shoe 
in the color as it is. The difficulty of re-dyeing 
any color but black is one mainly of getting 
the surface in condition so that the dye will 
penetrate evenly. In attempting to re-dye a 
shoe the problem is to prevent staining of the 
lining and also to get an even application of 
the dye in different parts of the shoe and in 
different thicknesses of leather. 


176 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


WAXES 

For use on heels, shanks and the edges of 
shoes, waxes are employed as a means of dress¬ 
ing. Generally a mixture of bee’s wax and 
shellac of different compositions is provided, as 
may be best suited for different purposes. 

WATER BLEMISH ON THE SOLE OF THE SHOE 

A great many opinions have been advanced 
concerning the cause of water stains on the soles 
of shoes. One opinion is that the sole of the 
shoe, while passing through the factory, may 
have been subjected to water containing some¬ 
thing that would stain it. 

Some manufacturers believe that stains on the 
bottom of the shoe are the result of certain ir¬ 
regularities in the tannage that cause the 
spotted effect. There is, however, no certainty 
as to the true cause and therefore there is no 
positive means that manufacturers can use to 
entirely prevent water stains. The important 
point is that the stain does not in any way de¬ 
crease the wearing quality of the shoe. This 
has been proved by experiment with a pair of 
shoes, one of which had water stains while the 
other was without. Both were found to have 
equal wearing qualities. 

It is well then for the shoe salesman to make 
no effort to conceal the fact of a water stain but 
rather to explain frankly the circumstances to 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 177 

the customer and to bring out clearly that the 
wearing quality of the shoe will in no way suffer. 

FALSE IMPRESSION CONCERNING SHOE DRESS¬ 
ING 

There is a very general impression that black 
or enamel dressings are used only on the soles of 
shoes of inferior quality, and that this is done in 
order to cover up certain defects in the sole. 
That this is without foundation is borne out by 
the fact that in the very highest grades of black 
shoes it is quite customary to use a black stain 
for the bottom. The stain adds slightly to the 
wearing quality of the sole and in addition keeps 
it from losing its fresh appearance, as a result 
of being handled frequently in the store before 
the final sale. 

A sole that is finished in the natural color will 
more readily become marred in appearance than 
one that is stained or enameled in black. The 
black stain is of particular advantage in the case 
of women’s shoes because the first impression, 
if it be an unfavorable one, may so prejudice 
the customer as to prevent the sale. With men’s 
shoes the matter of first appearance is not gen¬ 
erally of such great importance. 

BOWS 

HOW BOWS ARE MADE 

Bows are used mainly on Colonial pumps as 
a form of decoration. The best quality of bows 
are made entirely of silk in both the warp and 


178 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


the filling. A less expensive grade is made of 
silk wrap and cotton filling. Still cheaper 
grades are made entirely of cotton; varying all 
the way from the best cotton bows in which 
a fine mercerized Sea Island cotton is used, down 
to a very cheap bow made of ordinary peeler 
yarn. 

A good quality of bow is provided with a brace 
or support for the purpose of keeping it in shape. 
Generally pieces of cloth stiffened with glue, 
(called buckram) are used for this purpose. 
One of these supports is attached to the inside of 
the bow and another at the back of the bow. It 
is important that a fairly good quality of cloth 
be used for this purpose. A coarse or honey¬ 
combed buckram would not furnish sufficient 
resistance permanently to hold the bow in shape. 

A piece of material, known as a conformer, is 
attached between the two pieces of buckram. 
The purpose of this is to bring the bow back 
into shape whenever it is pulled out of position. 
At the same time the conformer is pliable enough 
to make it possible to shape the bow to the 
contour of the shoe and to have it stay in that 
position. 

Bows may be either sewn or riveted together. 
Riveting is somewhat more economical in manu¬ 
facturing cost. It also makes a more durable 
fastening than sewing. 

Leather bows are made in exactly the same 
way as those of cloth are made. 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 179 
QUALITIES OF BOWS 

It is evident that a high grade slipper 
should have a bow of silk or at least one of 
silk and cotton. The medium quality shoe 
should have a bow of silk and cotton or of fine 
mercerized cotton, while in the case of the low 
priced shoe it is to be expected that the lower 
grades of cotton bows will be used. However, 
there is comparatively such a slight difference 
in cost between the cheap cotton bows and those 
of the better grade of mercerized cotton or of 
silk and cotton construction that the manufac¬ 
turer is usually justified to use the better grades. 
The cheap cotton bow is likely to fade or show 
wear long before the shoe is worn out and to 
that extent detract from the customer’s satisfac¬ 
tion. 

Retailers are given the opportunity to replace 
moderate priced or cheap bows with better 
grades at a slight additional cost to the customer. 
A good bow adds to the attractiveness of the 
shoe and the customer is oftentimes willing to 
pay an extra 25 or 50 cents for a bow of good 
quality silk. Incidentally there is a fair margin 
of added profit in the transaction. 

BUCKLES 

REQUIREMENTS OF A GOOD BUCKLE 

Buckles for shoes are made in innumerable 
styles and of a great variety of materials. The 


180 MATERIALS IN SHOES 

important requirement of a good buckle is that 
it be adapted to the style and size of the shoe, 
that it be in good taste and made of such 
material as will last at least as long as the shoe. 
In a good quality buckle provision is made to 
have it considerably outwear the normal life 
of the shoe. The reason for this is to guard 
against any possibility of the plating wearing 
through while the shoe is still being used by the 
customer. 

A buckle, to be thoroughly serviceable should 
conform readily to the shape of the shoe. It 
should be flexible so as to adjust itself to the 
movement of walking and it should be light in 
weight. The edges should be smooth so that 
they will not cut into the shoe material and the 
parts should be strongly made so that they will 
not become detached under ordinary wear. 

From a manufacturing standpoint, the buckle 
should be so made that it may readily be at¬ 
tached with a hand stapling machine. 

SHOE LACES 

CLASSES OF LACES 

Shoe laces are made on what is known 
as a braiding machine, as distinguished from an 
ordinary weaving loom such as that used in mak¬ 
ing cloth. Laces naturally divide themselves 
into several classes. One classification is that 
between silk laces and cotton laces. Another is 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 181 


between cotton laces made of polished yarn and 
those in which the yarn is mercerized. A third 
classification is between laces that are made 
for the shoe manufacturing trade — that is, laces 
sold to manufacturers — and those that are pre¬ 
pared for the retail store’s findings department. 
A further classification is the all-leather lace 
which is simply a strip of leather of suitable 
weight, material and color, cut square or round. 

A new type of lace has recently been invented 
and developed. This consists of a closely woven 
or braided lace, treated in such a way as to 
make the finished product resemble leather, yet 
possessing all the desirable qualities of the 
braided lace. 

DIFFERENT GRADES OF LACES FOR MANUFAC¬ 
TURER AND RETAILER 

In this section of the Course we are interested 
mainly to consider laces that are made for shoe 
manufacturers; to be inserted in shoes before 
they are sold to the retailer. In order to keep 
the price of the shoe down as much as is con¬ 
sistent with good wearing qualities, it is cus¬ 
tomary to insert in a pair of shoes only a moder¬ 
ate priced lace that would retail for about five 
cents a pair. Manufacturers require that laces 
have good appearance and that they be of such 
quality as to insure wear for several months, un¬ 
der reasonable wearing conditions. 

In retail stores it is generally as easy, and 


182 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


much more profitable, to sell a ten cent lace as 
it is to sell a five cent lace. It is advisable 
therefore to provide for the retail trade a higher 
grade of lace. This is especially true because 
the higher grade lace will invariably give greater 
satisfaction to the customer in the long run. 
These are some of the practical reasons for dis¬ 
tinguishing between laces made for the shoe 
manufacturer and those made for the retail store 
trade. 

It must be added that there are great varie¬ 
ties of grades in manufacturers’ laces, varying 
from the cheap, flimsy lace usually found in the 
cheap shoe to the high grade cotton, or occa¬ 
sionally silk laces found in the best shoes. 

Shoe manufacturers’ cotton laces are usually 
made from a single ply thread of medium staple 
cotton yarn. The grade of cotton, together 
with the fineness of the weave determines in a 
large measure the quality of the lace. 

BRAIDING THE LACE 

The yarn is first dyed and then polished. 
These processes are essentially the same as those 
previously mentioned in referring to cotton fab¬ 
rics. The polishing process consists in pass¬ 
ing the yarn through a sizing of paste or gum 
arabic and then of running it through a burnish¬ 
ing machine. The result is to give a high lustre 
to the yarn. 

The operation next following is that of wind- 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 183 


ing the yarn on long spools or bobbins that fit 
into the braiding machine. After determining 
the size of the braid and the different degrees 
of openness or closeness of the weave, the 
machines are arranged to weave the required 
number of threads into the braid. For instance, 
in the lace known in the trade as an 88 thread 
lace there are 88 separate braided threads. 

Each bobbin is unwound from both ends of 
the yarn. In a very coarse braid there will be 
24 threads braided together and this would 
therefore require the use of twelve bobbins. 
Very fine braids, particularly those for tubular 
laces, call for as high as 144 to 200 threads. 
This would mean the use of 72 to 100 bobbins 
in braiding. 

All laces are tested by manufacturers for their 
tensile strength. The cheaper laces supplied in 
shoes will withstand a pulling strain of from 
50 to 75 pounds while the better grades will run 
from 100 to 150 pounds. High grade laces sold 
by retailers at ten to fifteen cents will frequently 
stand a strain of 200 pounds or more before 
breaking. 

POLISHED AND MERCERIZED YARNS 

Instead of using polished yarn it is often cus¬ 
tomary to use yarn that is mercerized. A ref¬ 
erence to the process of mercerizing has already 
been made in the section on fabrics. The same 
process is used in mercerizing the yarn for shoe 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


184 

laces. Mercerized laces are somewhat stronger 
than polished laces because the mercerizing has 
an effect to harden and strengthen the fibre of 
the cotton. 

Both the mercerized and the polished yarn 
laces are what are known as soft laces. Occa¬ 
sionally a highly glazed lace is used. The dis¬ 
advantage to this grade is that it does not re¬ 
main tied as well as the soft laces. The highly 
glazed lace is made by applying a thick coating 
of starch to the product after it has been braided. 
Cotton laces are frequently spoken of as mohair. 
This is not technically correct because mohair 
is really a woven hair fabric. However, these 
cotton laces are often polished so as to give them 
much the appearance of mohair, and it is due to 
this fact that they are so called. 

CUTTING AND TIPPING 

Laces are originally braided in a continuous 
length and are later cut off to the desired length. 
The ends of the braid, after being cut are folded 
back and, in some of the better grades, the tip is 
made of the fabric itself, and is strengthened by 
the addition of some substance that will provide 
a good tip. One of the best methods is that of 
adding rubber cement to the end of the lace af¬ 
ter it has been folded back, and then of rolling 
this end into a point shaped like a metal tip. 
The cement hardens and makes a very service¬ 
able tapered end. As there is no metal in this, 


SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 185 

there is no possibility of the appearance of brass 
or tin that results in the use of a metal tip. 
Furthermore, as it is a part of the lace it cannot 
pull off. 

QUALITIES DESIRED IN A GOOD LACE 

The distinguishing qualities of a good shoe 
lace are interesting to know. First of all the 
material should be fast color and should have a 
good lustre. A dull black lace or one faded or 
streaked detracts very much from the appear¬ 
ance of the shoe and the retailer who finds poor 
laces in the shoes that he buys is quite justified 
in discarding the laces and having them replaced 
with others before offering the shoe to his cus¬ 
tomer. In fact, it is quite customary in rural 
sections of the country to have retailers supply, 
without cost to the customer, a good pair of laces 
with each pair of shoes sold because of the gen¬ 
eral impression that the laces that come with 
the shoes are not likely to last very long. 

Laces should be fine enough in weave to retain 
their shape. A coarse weave lace is more likely 
to get caught in the eyelets or lacing hooks and 
thus be easily torn. The shoe salesman, after 
a little experience, will readily be able to dis¬ 
tinguish between various grades of laces by a 
simple examination of the color and evenness 
of the dye, the fineness of the weave and of the 
thread and the quality of the tips. It is clear, 
of course, that laces should be of uniform length. 


i86 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


In selling laces special care should be used to 
guard against incorrectly mating-up because of 
the inconvenience this causes the customer. 


STYLES 

The styles of laces change frequently. At 
present the wide, flat lace is not being used gen¬ 
erally. Tubular laces are being more widely de¬ 
manded. This style of lace varies in width from 
one eighth of an inch to three eighths of an inch. 
Round, tubular laces are undoubtedly more prac¬ 
tical and are likely to remain in general use for 
a long time. 

SILK AND IMITATION SILK 

Silk laces are braided on the same kind of 
machines and in the same manner as are the 
cotton laces. They are more commonly found 
in the flat, wide braids than in the flat tubular 
or round tubular braids. Ordinary silk does not 
wear as long as good cotton. Imitations of silk 
are made from wood or other fibre or of highly 
mercerized cotton of a long staple. Of course, 
the longer the staple of cotton the more evenly 
the resulting yarn can be spun and the more 
tightly it can be woven. For the cheaper grade 
laces an ordinary upland cotton of about three- 
quarter inch staple is used. For the higher 
grades a medium staple or even a long staple 
cotton, such as Sea Island, may be used. 



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STYLES OF SHOE CARTON LABELS 






































































SHOE MANUFACTURERS’ FINDINGS 189 


CARTONS AND LABELS 

IMPORTANCE OF ATTRACTIVE CONTAINERS 

Last in the list of manufacturers’ findings is 
the carton in which the shoe is to be delivered to 
the retailer. Manufacturers generally have 
come to realize the importance of using an at¬ 
tractive carton. Customers are much impressed 
by an attractive container, whether it be for a 
shoe, a hat or a package of breakfast food. On 
the other hand, the cheap carton, unattractive 
and fragile as it is, will soon get out of shape 
and break and as a result will give the customer 
the impression that the shoes are either cheap 
shoes or that they have been in stock a long 
time. 

Because of the importance of appearance in 
the proper selling of the shoe, a label for the 
front of the carton was finally developed. The 
idea was put into form about 1880 by a printer 
named Tolman. Being located in Brockton, 
Massachusetts, which is one of the centres in the 
manufacture of men’s fine shoes, he was able to 
enlist the cooperation of a number of the manu¬ 
facturers and together they developed what 
formed the basis of the modern shoe label. 

DISTINCTIVE APPEARANCE OF THE STOCK 

In recent years retailers who buy from vari¬ 
ous manufacturers have come to the necessity of 


190 


MATERIALS IN SHOES 


using their own distinctive style of cartons and 
labels in order to get a desirable uniformity and 
attractiveness in the whole stock when it is as¬ 
sembled on the shelves. Others who buy largely 
from a single manufacturer, provided that manu¬ 
facturer supplies attractive cartons have, of 
course, no necessity for buying special cartons. 
Still others have their own cartons made up and 
labeled, and then have these sent to manufac¬ 
turers to be filled. Another plan is for the re¬ 
tailer to have his own boxes in which to put the 
shoes that have been received in the manufac¬ 
turers’ boxes. 

Whichever method may be followed makes 
little difference so long as the result is to insure 
that the shelf boxes are uniform, attractive and 
in good condition. 

For the purpose of illustration samples of box 
labels are shown. It will be noticed from these 
that there is no attempt at any general standard 
of design. Each manufacturer has a distinc¬ 
tively original label which serves to set apart his 
goods from among all others; thus making them 
easily recognized on the shelves. 






















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